Applying Lean Six Sigma in Health Care: A Practical Guide to Performance Improvement

Health care organizations are increasingly challenged by the need to provide high-quality, safe, and efficient patient care while keeping costs low. Lean Six Sigma, which provides a framework to improve quality and increase efficiency with clear and measurable outcomes, is an essential tool for managers to set the health care industry on a sustainable path.Written to address this growing demand for Lean Six Sigma expertise in healthcare organizations, Applying Lean Six Sigma in Health Care: A Practical Guide to Performance Improvement provides a step-by-step explanation of the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) process as well as performance improvement techniques and terminology. With a focus on learning through doing, readers will actively engage the DMAIC process by applying it to an improvement project that is carried through the text. • An active learning approach where students read, calculate, write and reflect as they work through problem-solving exercises, case studies, and other activities.• An ongoing case study on improving pain management (in chapters 5 -10) that demonstrates a completed process.• A capstone project that engages students in applying all phases of DMAIC to complete a Lean Six Sigma project.• Excel practice throughout to show how data is summarized (Chapter 6), analyzed (Chapter 7), and reported (Chapter 9).• Excel files and templates (such as Gantt charts and Cause and Effect diagrams) that offer additional resources and examples provided online.