Chapter 3, Six Sigma (book: Qu

Health care facility…

Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, our local medical center ofLourdes recently began working with GE Medical Systems to implementSix Sigma as a method for quality improvement and processimprovement. Because patient productivity and access to beds wereamong the group’s major issues, the team began to focus on thisissue. After the selection and scoping process, they embarked onthe Six Sigma project to reduce the time between writing a patientdischarge order and once that hospital bed was availableagain.Problem settingDuring this phase, the 15-member Lourdes team engaged in severalinterviews with GE’s team to illustrate the ongoing process of”getting out of bed” and identifying the most important, if not thebest known. That of the Xi. Sy. Quality elements. The projectcharter was designed to determine which aspects would beout-of-scope and out-of-scope, and the ongoing processesunderlined. For each six-sigma project, the “opportunity” and”disability” must be determined before the measurement phasebegins. For this project, the time went from the written slidingorder to the bed time available to the next patient. Disability isa possibility that exceeds the above limit or the maximum timeallowed to complete the process. The team established the projectschedule and the stage was approved by the project implementationsponsor. Having the CEO as a sponsor shows commitment and supporton behalf of the organization.Go to the measurement stageDisposable disposable beds are broken down into logicprocesses:    The doctor writes the discharge order untilthe patient leaves the room    The patient leaves the facility until thefamily is notified    Inform the family until the family beginscleaning    Families start cleaning until the familyfinishes cleaningTime and motion studies are used to measure each step in theprocess to determine the factors that influence the overallprocess. Doctors do not record the time when an order isdischarged, so the team uses manual data collection to collect thisinformation. Data on other stages of the process are available fromthe hospital’s electronic system.Three care wards were measured, including day and night shifts andrepresented approximately one-third of the total beds used as astatistical model for the entire hospital. Time goals andspecifications ceiling are set for four sub-segments based onexperience, project team and client expectations.