Six Sigma Healthcare Projects

The statistical tools of Six Sigma, a business management strategy that uses hard data to improve manufacturing processes, find a welcome home in the health services industry. Six Sigma projects pay special attention to customer satisfaction and cost reduction, with a goal of decreasing the number of defects or failures in a process to almost zero.

Medication Errors

• Medication errors injure 1.5 million people and cost billions of dollars annually, according to the Institute of Medicine. Given the stakes, medication administration offers an inviting target for a Six Sigma project. By identifying the root causes of medication errors--including patient mis-identification, dosage errors, and physician handwriting challenges--Six Sigma experts can help reduce errors, costs and injuries.

Registration Errors

• Patient registrars record a patient's demographic and financial information into the hospital or physician practice's computer system. However, federal regulations, facility policies and even the architecture of the registration area affect the quality and timeliness of data collections. A Six Sigma project could evaluate the entire process flow in its current state, identify weak points and inefficiencies, and recommend a revised process. One institution that engaged in just such a project realized "significant improvements," according to Six Sigma expert Dave Wojczynski.

Patient Satisfaction

• Many hospitals actively monitor patient perception about the quality and value of the services they receive, and ask patients to rate their overall performance. A Six Sigma project could evaluate patient comments to identify the most common complaints, then engage in a short-term process to correct the barriers to patient satisfaction.