Improving Healthcare Quality and Cost with Six Sigma

The Definitive Six Sigma Guide for Healthcare: Methodologies, Tools, and Metrics Rising costs are making healthcare unaffordable for millions, and 100,000 people die every year due to medical error. Healthcare must change-dramatically. Many leading healthcare institutions are discovering a powerful toolset for addressing both quality and cost: Six Sigma. In this hands-on, start-to-finish guidebook, four leading experts introduce Six Sigma from the unique standpoint of the healthcare professional, showing exactly how to implement it in real-world environments. Drawing on their unsurpassed experience, the authors offer step-by-step methodologies, tools, and metrics-all thoroughly adapted to the unique realities of healthcare. They demonstrate how to utilize Six Sigma's Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) process to address even the most challenging problems. They also offer realistic guidance on rolling out Six Sigma initiatives that deliver rapid and sustainable value. The authors show Six Sigma at work in every area of the hospital: clinical, radiology, surgery, ICU, cardiovascular, laboratories, emergency, trauma, administrative services, staffing, billing, cafeteria, even central supply. You'll learn why Six Sigma can produce better results than other quality initiatives, how it brings new rigor and discipline to healthcare delivery, and how it can be used to sustain ongoing improvements for the long term. Coverage includes * Adapting Six Sigma methodology, tools, and measurements for healthcare * Designing more successful experiments * Rolling out your Six Sigma initiative successfully * Case studies from every area of the hospital, from the ICU to billing * Six Sigma templates modified fully for the healthcare environment Comprehensive and user-friendly, this book will be indispensable to everyone concerned with quality or cost: administrators, managers, physicians, and quality specialists alike. Where Six Sigma is already in use or being considered, it will serve as a shared blueprint for the entire team.