The Four Key Approaches of Healthcare Lean-Six Sigma
As one begins to understand the theory of constraints and system thinking, an epiphany enlightens. One has to look to improve the system and all interdependent process as whole, by improving systematically a process here and a process there. Improving without a systematic view, just brings little results often shifting the root problem.
Lean-Six Sigma for Healthcare has four interwoven approaches
read moreGood Quality Improvement Programs Produce Better Bottom Lines
W. Edwards Deming once said, In God we trust, all others bring data! That is just what I propose to do in this newsletter. I often speak of how continuous quality improvement programs improve the bottom line at a healthcare site. This idea is throughout my web site. I promote the idea that Quality pays, it does not cost. That is, a good quality improvement program based upon population level data not only is not cost neutral, it improves the income and profit at a site. Many healthcare professionals do not believe this. They point at all the regulatory standards for quality, such as those written by JHACO, and believe that quality is actually costing them quite a bit. I have done some extensive research on this topic recently and believe that I can prove this point convincingly to you.
Fortunately there is good documentation of financial outcomes at healthcare sites which use various quality improvement approaches. I am very familiar with two of these-TransforMed’s National Demonstration Project and the Federal Government’s NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Baldrige Award program. Starting in 2006 TransforMed, a subsidiary of American Academy of Family Physicians, began a program to aid in transforming a sample of primary care practices into models of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). One group of sites was actively involved with representatives from TransfoMed to adopt the Patient-Centered model and the other group used materials supplied to them by TransforMed to use in a self-directed approach to adopt the model. TransforMed’s CEO, Dr. Terry McGeeney, wrote an article recently (available on the TransforMed website) summarizing the financial impact of the adoption of the PCMH. The results were very positive. The revenue for the assisted sites rose 10.49% on average and the rise in revenue for the self-directed sites was 2.43%. For physicians at these sites personal income rose nearly 14% at the assisted sites and 13% at the self-directed sites. This was achieved while most of these practices were installing electronic medical records. These results are well documented because of TransforMed’s practice change model incorporates strict tracking of financial data.
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