Six Sigma Articles & Books - Healthcare

Articles

Lean

Emergency Department Prescribes Lean for Process Improvement
When the Mercy Medical Center emergency department used lean techniques to improve process flow, patient satisfaction scores rose from the 30th to the 95th percentile. Value stream mapping helped identify and eliminate non-value-added steps.

St. Luke's Hospital Breaks Out of the Pack to Improve Patient and Physician Satisfaction
Since implementing its Baldrige-based “breaking out of the pack” strategy, St. Luke's Hospital has improved patient satisfaction scores from the 49th to the 90th percentile. The hospital was named a Press Ganey Success Story recipient in 2007 and a Silver Award winner in the Iowa Recognition for Performance Excellence program.

Lean Six Sigma

Hospital Reduces Medication Errors Using DMAIC and QFD
The medication error rate at Illinois' Alton Memorial Hospital was low when compared to national statistics, but the hospital knew cost savings would be significant if this statistic was lowered even further.

Bringing Order to Orders at the Nebraska Medical Center
The Nebraska Medical Center used Six Sigma to improve the completeness and availability of physician orders for patients; the project occurred within a Six Sigma program that has returned about $7.5 million in savings.

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