Healthcare Update

In This Issue

• Focus on Root Cause Analysis
• Guest Essay: Marti Beltz writes about eight factors that may impact the effectiveness of a Root Cause Analysis in an organization.
• This Issue’s Announcements: Read about how ASQ’s advocacy efforts have helped establish a healthcare reform task force and learn about new training opportunities.
• Quality News: Read current news stories about quality tools and trends in the healthcare field, as well as issues facing the healthcare industry.

Focus On…

ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS (RCA)

Cause Analysis Tools
These three tools can be used when the cause of a problem or situation needs to be uncovered:

• Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram: Identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem and sorts ideas into useful categories.
• Pareto chart: Shows on a bar graph which factors are more significant.
• Scatter diagram: Graphs pairs of numerical data, with one variable on each axis, to help you look for a relationship.

Webinar: Root Cause Analysis in Healthcare: Optimizing the Process in Healthcare
This webinar, available to ASQ members, will explore the history and future of RCA, as well as review its basic steps. It will focus on how to optimize this set of tools to achieve the desired results. RCA has become the most widely used quality tool in healthcare. Learn how to avoid common misuses of the process and how to hardwire for its success in your organization. This webinar is presented by Martha (Marti) E. K. Beltz, senior consultant for Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Performance Excellence. View the webinar.

Root Cause Analysis for Beginners
This Quality Progress article provides an easy-to-understand definition of RCA and describes the four-step process to apply it: data collection, causal factor charting, root cause identification, recommendation generation and implementation.
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Root Cause Analysis: A Framework for Tool Selection
This Quality Management Journal article discusses the ability of three RCA tools—cause-and-effect diagram, interrelationship diagram and current reality tree—to find root causes with varying degrees of accuracy. More  

Using Root Cause Analysis to Make the Patient Care System Safe
The Institute of Medicine’s “Cross the Chasm” report identifies six key areas for systematic improvement in healthcare. One of these areas involves patient safety, ensuring that “patients should not be harmed by the care intended to help them.”
This presentation examines how RCA can contribute to patient safety.
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Featured Book

Guest Essay

Root Cause Analysis: Why Are We Doing The Same One Over and Over Again?

In this article, by Marti Beltz, an instructor for ASQ’s lean and Six Sigma Black Belt classes, writes about eight factors that may impact the effectiveness of RCA in an organization. Those factors include that the name RCA implies a tool, rather than a process, and that the process often ends with a proximate cause, rather than the root cause identified as the target. More

Guest Essay is an ongoing Healthcare Update feature in which authors working in the healthcare field explore the role quality tools and methods play in delivering better care and driving down costs.

If you would like to submit a Guest Essay for consideration, send an e-mail to Healthcare Update editor Nicole Adrian.

This Issue’s Announcements

ASQ Advocacy Efforts Result in Development of Healthcare Reform Task Force

ASQ continues to ensure that quality fundamentals play a key role in overhauling healthcare in the United States. Recently, representatives from ASQ met with David Blumenthal, M.D., at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. ASQ has formed a task force to provide information requested Blumenthal in two primary areas:

• Transition health IT initiatives from a focus on technology to a focus on quality improvement.
• Use the Baldrige criteria for small physician practices.

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Joint Conference Set for February

ASQ will hold a conference in conjunction with the Society for Health Systems Feb. 25–28 in Atlanta. The conference will follow the theme, “Building Better Healthcare Systems” and focus on healthcare quality and process improvement. The event will include education sessions, workshops and an opportunity to network with well-respected and knowledgeable process and quality improvement experts from throughout the United States. More

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt for Healthcare—Blended Format

The next session of this training runs May 12–Sept. 9. The course will include web-based lean Six Sigma training, live virtual training and coaching, and classroom training. Those who complete the training will be able to:

• Execute the Six Sigma define, measure, analyze, identify and control method.
• Design, simulate and execute experiments that depict validated improvement.
• Plan and implement control plans to maximize gains.
• Prepare and present projects to colleagues and management.

More

New Course! Leading Lean Teams in Healthcare

This course describes the needed lean tools and shows how to apply them to improve work flow. Students also will earn to lead teams through an actual lean project from their organization. This course is applicable to all healthcare organizations, with a primary focus on hospitals, physician clinics, labs, blood banks and public health organizations. The course runs April 27–July 20. More

Quality News

Patients Want Records, Hospitals Turn Deaf Ear

According to this Quality News Today article, despite a federal law requiring hospitals and doctors to release medical records to patients who ask for them, patients are reporting they have a difficult time accessing them, leading to complications. More

Healthcare Follows Auto’s Lead with Lean

Hospitals and physician offices in metro Detroit are looking toward improving efficiency to help save lives, according to this Quality News Today article. The University of Michigan Health System was one of the first southeast Michigan hospital systems to adopt the auto industry’s lean principles. More