Lean and Six Sigma for Process and Performance Improvement in Health Care
Overview
In this formative activity you will explore Lean and Six Sigma concepts applied to health care for process and performance improvement. Consider how Lean and Six Sigma could be applied to improve health care economics and the application of health care financial and funding models. You will write a paper to summarize the concepts of Lean and Six Sigma and the application of Lean and Six Sigma in a selected case study.
Preparation
Read the Using DMAIC To Improve Nursing Shift-Change AssignmentsLinks to an external site. case study. Your assignment is based on it. (If desired, you can download a PDF version of the case study if you agree to the free registration on the ASQ site)
Instructions
Write 1-2 pages in which you:
Summarize the application of Lean and Six Sigma in the case study.
Describe ways in which Lean and Six Sigma could be applied to improve health care economics and the application of health care financial and funding models.
Use at least two sources to support your writing. Choose sources that are credible, relevant, and appropriate. Cite each source listed on your source page at least one time within your assignment.
Week 7 Activity - Lean and Six Sigma in Health Care
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The define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC) approach was implemented to improve the hospital’s nursing shift change process to reduce labor costs without undermining patient care quality. Regarding change, the nurse shift change is important to guarantee care continuity and takes place every twelve hours. When nurses spend less time interacting with their peers, they could mobilize efforts and commit more time to improve patient outcomes. In the measure phase, nurses recorded the time and provided an estimated timescale lost. During analysis, a complete failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) was performed to holistically establish the problem and derive factors contributing to rising labor costs. In the improvement phase, rather than reducing the number of nurses because it could increase the workload, the best method entailed augmenting the sharing of reports between nurses to improve the quality of care delivered. Regarding control, the plan was tested for a month in both shifts, thus reducing the time spent to ten to fifteen minutes (Hewes & Costilla, 2016). In this vein, it can be derived that the DMAIC approach reduced time wasta...