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Lean and Six Sigma Process Excellence in Healthcare 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 HealthcareTypically the pressing issues facing Healthcare delivery systems are:
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. Lean Six Sigma Terminology UnraveledSix Sigma is a problem-solving methodology with a primary focus of doing things right the first time. Clearly, in the realm of patient safety where a simple mistake can be life-threatening, the methodology shows its strengths. Lean focuses on doing things rapidly and reducing wait times. Using Lean and a kaizen (a Lean tool) approach is an excellent means of rapidly achieving massive reductions in lengths of stay. Six Sigma can help resolve this, but what takes Six Sigma 6 months to achieve can often be done in 5 days with Lean. Lean Six Sigma is SBTI's ground-up integration of Lean and Six Sigma and is undoubtedly the best approach to resolving virtually any Healthcare process problem. Kaizen is a Lean tool focused on making change in a matter of 3-5 days. By getting the process stakeholders together and tasking them with improving the process in a structured way, dramatic results ensue. Kaizens provide an accelerated mechanism to achieve results. Augmenting Kaizen with the defect reduction power of Six Sigma ensures that results are flawless and sustained. SBTI has introduced K-Sigma™, a revolutionary approach to achieving the benefits of Lean and Six Sigma in a fraction of the time! Black Belts undergo extensive training in fully integrated Lean and Six Sigma methodologies, and, by following a new improved DKMAIC™ roadmap, they not only learn the tools over a shorter period, but they complete their project during the training period. Typical Lean Six Sigma offerings involve just a 2 day bolt-on Lean class to traditional Six Sigma. SBTI's Lean Six Sigma and K-Sigma™ offerings, however, are ground-up full integrations of the quality and flow methodologies. SBTI's Healthcare OfferingsSBTI has a portfolio of tailored process improvement solutions for Healthcare. We provide answers all the way from individuals who wish to expand their expertise through to Health Systems who want full organization-wide deployment. How to Begin:Before any new initiative, organizations must ask themselves, "What's the best approach? Should we test it out by starting with a specific department or problem in mind? Should we do training first? Or, should we go straight to organization-wide deployment?" The answer, of course, is: it depends. Organizations have successfully deployed Lean Six Sigma using each of these approaches. Pilot Projects using SBTI Consultants (Master Black Belts)Pilot projects targeting specific areas can serve to prove the concept. SBTI will make available Master Black Belts for Hire who can lead projects and provide necessary technical and project management expertise. These can quickly demonstrate the program's value to the organization and help market it internally. If the concept is wrong for the organization, it can be contained in a small area. But, if the concept is right, the organization has lost significant time for deployment and results. TrainingLean Six Sigma can be launched in an organization by training Green Belts and Black Belts. SBTI has unmatched experience in training successful Belts in a variety of industries and our health care curriculum is particularly polished. Training can, and preferably should, be held on site where access to leaders, peers, and projects is uncomplicated. SBTI also offers Lean Six Sigma public training courses, however, as well as eLearning opportunities where those make more sense.
SBTI also provides conversion classes to allow for a straightforward upgrade path from Green Belt to Belt Black to K-Sigma™ Black Belt to Master Black Belt. Often requested, the conversion path allows simple lower cost entry for healthcare providers wishing to start small and grow. Full DeploymentThe chief risks of beginning with pilots or training are that projects may not be well-defined and linked to the organization's strategic goals, the right resources may not be available, and no one is truly accountable for the success or failure of the project. In a full deployment, leadership is committed from the outset, the business case drives the scope of the deployment, and leaders set accountability and expectations. SBTI will lead your organization through the five phases of deployment (see Six Sigma: the First 90 Days, by Dr. Stephen Zinkgraf, SBTI's CEO):
To learn more about the anatomy
of a full Lean Six Sigma deployment click here. SBTI can help you plan and execute your deployment and provides the supporting workshops that ensure the key elements are in place:
ResultsResults vary by type of process, but, rolled up to a hospital or system level, it is not unusual to see savings of 3-5% of revenues in 18 months to 2 years. Individual Six Sigma and Lean projects can quickly see process durations cut in half and reduce wait times by as much as 90%. Patient Satisfaction is really a symptom of other metrics that can be targeted by the deployment. Suffice to say, a poor performing hospital can become one of the best in less than 2 years. Read through our case studies to see how a Texas hospital went from the 4th percentile to the 80th with just one project. Fact SheetsSBTI's portfolio of offerings for Healthcare in a downloadable
form: Case StudiesRead what others achieved using Lean, Kaizen and Lean Six Sigma What Others are Saying About SBTI“Lean Six Sigma challenges us as a hospital to focus on how
good we can be, forces us to understand where we are today, and
enables us to bridge the gap between the two. At the center of
all this is our driving motivation to do the best we can for patients.” "When our hospital embarked on using Lean and Six Sigma
methodologies to improve processes in our surgical services, there
were not a lot of health care organizations using these methodologies.
That is why it was important for us to partner with SBTI for their
expertise and guidance. Our doctors and staff are embracing the
improvements we have made which have resulted in greater efficiencies
in our surgical areas."
"Having the supplies and equipment readily at hand to take
care of patients has been an issue among nurses at CTMC for quite
a while. Applying 5s to the Medical-Surgical Unit's two supply
and equipment rooms has taken chaos and confusion and made it
into an organized, efficient, and almost calm place. The nurses
on all shifts are thrilled with the results. This was a big win
for our new clinical manager as well. Also, the materials management
department finally feels that they can do their job effectively
and now have a great working relationship with the nursing unit.
Overall, this event has really sparked more global interest in
Kaizen events and the 5s methodology. We are finally on our way!"
“SBTI really helped the team get focused on the best and
most cost-effective way to improve the system. We were actually
going into this process focusing on one item and were very surprised
to see something else pop up…It’s already working.” “They [SBTI] have been a wonderful partner throughout this entire thing. They have helped us with Six Sigma opportunities and this kaizen event. We hope to continue to use Six Sigma, Lean, and Kaizen together as a portfolio of performance improvement techniques to help us make our hospital a better place.” Contact UsFor more details, contact a Lean Six Sigma Healthcare professional at healthcare@sbtimail.com |
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to SBTI's dedicated Healthcare Group. In the past, 
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