LEAN in Healthcare |

Lean and Six Sigma Process Excellence in Healthcare

Welcome to SBTI’s dedicated Healthcare Group. In the past, Lean and Six Sigma were served to Healthcare either with a heavy dose of manufacturing or by conventional healthcare quality groups just rehashing their unchanged approach as Six Sigma. This was frustrating to everyone and lowered the return on project investment. Worse, Healthcare organizations were turned off to the potential of Six Sigma.

Now, SBTI has brought its considerable deployment history to bear on an industry searching for help. We’ve taken our experience with 60+ major deployments across various industries and modeled a program specifically for Healthcare. By executing dozens of projects and enlisting the expertise of healthcare professionals, SBTI has created the first complete portfolio of tailored process improvement solutions for Healthcare.

Let our experienced Healthcare Consultants help you deploy Lean and Six Sigma in your organization using an approach specifically designed to solve Healthcare problems.

How Lean and Six Sigma Apply to Healthcare

Typically the pressing issues facing Healthcare delivery systems are:

Lowering patient length of stay;
Improving patient flow through the system;
Increasing margins (as profit or reinvestment into the organization’s future);
Increasing patient volumes; and
A restrictive lack of resource to do all of the above

Historically, these issues seemed insurmountable in Healthcare using traditional approaches. But these are reasonably straightforward goals in a Six Sigma / Lean deployment, provided the right tools are used for the right issues.

With Six Sigma, organizations begin with the Voice of the Customer to capture the expectations of patients, family members, physicians, and other customers. Six Sigma then applies facts, data, and statistical analysis to manage, improve, and re-invent processes to reduce variation. In an emergency department, registration, triage and acuity assignments are standardized to assure efficient and effective patient treatment. On a care unit, nurses collaborate with the pharmacy to improve the accuracy and timeliness of first dose dispensing of newly ordered medications.

Lean gives organizations the tools to drive out waste so that all work adds value and serves the customer’s needs. In a medication room, nurses have the supplies they need when they want them and where they can easily find them. In a laboratory, color coded visual indicators are introduced so technicians can quickly see what work needs to be done, what is complete, and where things need to go next. In both cases, patients are served more quickly and inventory requirements are reduced.