Overview
Main description
Proven strategies for applying Lean Six Sigma to the healthcare industry—and getting practical, sustainable results in as few as five days
Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals explains how to use tested LSS methods and tools to achieve the goals of better, faster, and cheaper healthcare. These strategies follow the patient from the front door of the hospital or emergency room all the way through discharge—examining key aspects of patient flow and quality—and also follow the trail of billing and collections to discover major leaks in cash flow. The book emphasizes both the clinical and operational sides, so the “three demons of healthcare”—delay, defects, and deviation—can be reduced.
Using Lean Six Sigma, the healthcare system could cut the annual tab for healthcare in half, and return every hospital to profitability. Industry leaders like Virginia Mason and the Mayo Clinic have already shown that it’s possible to get better, faster, and cheaper healthcare using the tools of Six Sigma. Their stories are included in this book. A companion website features practical, free downloads of Lean Six Sigma reference cards, action plans, and Excel macros for quick and easy implementation of the concepts.
Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals shows how to:
- Reduce preventable patient harm by 50% or more
- Reduce patient time in the Emergency Department by 50% or more
- Reduce or eliminate the need for ambulance “diversions”
- Reduce turnaround time in hospital labs by 50% or more
- Optimize bed management in the hospital
- Reduce rejected, appealed and denied claims by 50% or more
- Increase revenues by 10% or more by being better, faster, and cheaper
Practical, in-depth coverage:
Faster, Better, Cheaper Healthcare in 5 Days; Pioneers—Virginia Mason, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic; The Universal Improvement Method Focus—Improve, Sustain, Honor; Faster Hospital in 5 Days; A Faster ER, OR, Lab, Radiology, Nursing Unit in Five Days using Lean; Economies of Speed; The 7 Speed Bumps of Lean; The 5 S's; Common Measures of Flow; Lean Tools; Spaghetti Diagrams; Value Stream Mapping; A Faster ER in 5 Days—Patient Turnaround in 1/6th the Time; A Faster Lab in 5 Days Case Study—Reducing Turnaround Times by a Third in Five Days; Faster Medical Imaging in 5 Days; A Faster OR in 5 Days; Faster Bed Management—Changing the Paradigm; Faster Nursing Unit in 5 Days; Better Hospital in 5 Days—Reducing Defects and Mistakes in the ER, OR, Imaging, Nursing Unit; A Cheaper, More Profitable Hospital in Five Days—Reducing Operational Defects and Lost Revenue; Case Study: Reducing Denied Claims by $400,000/month in Five Days; Is There an Improvement Project Lurking in Your Data? Data Mining with Excel; Using the QI Macros to Analyze Your Data; Key Quality Measures Joint Commission—Core Measures; Heart Failure; Surgical Infections; Nursing Quality; Patient Satisfaction; Pain Control; Financial and Operational Measures; Sustaining Improvement Process Flowchart; Control Charts for Sustaining the Improvement; Reduce Variation Choosing a Control Chart; Laser-Focused Process Innovation Focusing the Improvement Effort; Voice of the Customer; Speak Your Customer’s Language; Critical to Quality Indicators (CTQs) SIPOC; A Balanced Scorecard; Making Lean Six Sigma Work Formal Network v. Informal Network Linear vs Circular Causes; Use SWAT Teams; Risk Free Way to Implement LSS; Can LSS Kill Your Company?; Conflicting Goals; Honor Your Progress
Table of contents
Ch 1: Faster, Better, Cheaper Healthcare in 5 DaysWhy Now? $950 Billion in preventable medical costs will pay for healthcare reform. Pioneers: Virginia Mason, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic; The Universal Improvement MethodFocus * Improve * Sustain * HonorCh 2: Faster Hospital in 5 DaysA Faster ER, OR, Lab, Radiology, Nursing Unit in Five Days using Lean: Economies of Speed / The 7 Speed Bumps of Lean / The 5 S's; Common Measures of Flow * Lean Tools * Spaghetti Diagrams * Value Stream MappingCh 3: A Faster ER in 5 DaysPatient turnaround in 1/6th the timeCh 4: A Faster Lab in 5 DaysCase Study: Reducing Turnaround Times by a third in five days.Ch 5: Faster Medical Imaging in 5 DaysCh 6 – A Faster OR in 5 DaysCh 7 – Faster Bed ManagementChanging the ParadigmCh 8: Faster Nursing Unit in 5 DaysWalking is WasteCh 9: Better Hospital in 5 DaysReducing defects and mistakes in the ER, OR, Imaging, Nursing UnitC10: A Cheaper, More Profitable Hospital in Five DaysReducing operational defects and lost revenue; Case study: Reducing denied claims by $400,000/month in five days.Ch 11 Is There an Improvement Project Lurking in Your Data?Data Mining with Excel/ Using the QI Macros To Analyze Your DataCh 12 – Key Quality MeasuresJoint Commission – Core Measures*Heart Failure * Surgical Infections * Nursing Quality; Patient Satisfaction * Pain Control Etc. ; Financial and Operational MeasuresCh 13 - Sustaining ImprovementProcess Flowchart / Control Charts for Sustaining the Improvement Stabilize your process * Reduce Variation Choosing a Control Chart Ch 14 – Laser-Focused Process InnovationFocusing the Improvement Effort/ Voice of the Customer / Speak Your Customer’s Language / Critical to Quality Indicators (CTQs) SIPOC * A Balanced Scorecard? Ch 15 Making Lean Six Sigma Work Formal Network vs Informal Network Linear vs Circular Causes / Use SWAT Teams / Risk Free Way to Implement LSS / Can LSS Kill Your Company? / Conflicting Goals / Honor Your Progress / Lean Six Sigma Roles Free Resources (Download)Lean Simplified Quick Reference Card * SS Simplified Reference Card * SPC Quick Reference Card * LSS Action Plan * QI Macros 90-day Trial for Excel * E-books
Author comments
Jay Arthur, The KnowWare Man, works with companies that want to fire up their profits using Lean Six Sigma. He is the author of Lean Six Sigma Demystified and the QI Macros SPC software for Excel. The QI Macros is used by over 3,000 hospitals to meet the accreditation needs of the Joint Commission.
Jay has worked with Tenet Healthcare, Kindred Healthcare, Centura Healthcare, and Christus Healthcare on projects to improve patient flow and to reduce clinical and operational errors.
Besides consulting with healthcare companies, Jay has been researching what works and what doesn't work in healthcare for over a decade. He will backup his writing with examples and case studies from all aspects of healthcare.
