Six Sigma Comes to TMC

Source: Truman Medical Centers

In an ongoing effort to advance its commitment to quality patient care and service excellence, Truman Medical Centers will become one of the first hospitals in the region and one of the first safety net hospitals in the nation to implement a Lean Six Sigma program into its corporate environment.

According to TMC President/CEO John W. Bluford, implementing Lean Six Sigma is part of TMC’s Cultural Transformation II. “TMC has come along way in the past six years and is now ready to enter this new phase which will speak to more consistency in achieving perfection, the provision of better measuring tools and ongoing process improvement. The overall net effect will be a more robust "corporate metabolism" that energizes our service delivery to patients, doctors, visitors and staff."

Well-known in the corporate world, but less known in the healthcare industry,
Six Sigma develops a culture within the organization that is committed to reducing defects and improving customer service. Six Sigma is a rigorous and a systematic methodology that utilizes information and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance, practices and systems by identifying and preventing defects in processes.

To lead this new effort, TMC has hired Kamran Jahanshahi as Senior Vice President. Jahanshahi is new to the healthcare industry, after spending 19 years in financial industries in the United States, Latin America and Europe. A Six Sigma Master Black Belt, joins TMC from Citibank where he co-developed Citigroup’s Six Sigma Program, “Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty Through People & Quality.”

According to Jahanshahi, Six Sigma methodologies aim to reduce the variation and "non-value added" activity in clinical and business process, which give rise to long cycle times, high cost and poor outcomes. A process that operates at true Six Sigma levels is producing acceptable quality levels over 99.9999997% of the time.

“This increase in performance and decrease in process variation leads to defect reduction and vast improvement in profits, employee morale and quality of product, and ultimately in an excellent customer experience,” said Jahanshahi.

Some of the world’s largest and most profitable companies – including GE, Bank of America, Honeywell, DuPont, Samsung, and Motorola – have used Six Sigma to achieve improvements in business performance, in everything from products to processes to complex systems and even in work environments.

Locally, companies such as GERC, Bank of America and Raytheon have benefited from Six Sigma.

“Truman Medical Centers has consistently demonstrated their commitment to delivering the highest quality care to the community they serve,” said Paul Black, chief operating officer, Cerner Corp. “Like their long-standing investment in healthcare information technology, the decision to implement a Lean Six Sigma program is further evidence of the importance the hospital places on excellence initiatives.”

Although hospitals have been slow to developing Six Sigma into their corporate environment, those that have developed such a program, including Yale New Haven Hospital, John Hopkins, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, New York Presbyterian and Health South, have delivered substantial gains to the organizations. Noted improvements have included:
· Emergency Department, Operating Room, Laboratory and Radiology patient flow and cycle time
· Billing, coding and reimbursements
· Reducing bloodstream infection rates in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit
· Reducing length of stay for patients with congestive heart failure
· Supply Chain Management Improvements

Experts claim a typical Six Sigma project in healthcare has delivered an average of $500,000 in annualized savings. “Hospitals have lagged behind in adopting Six Sigma methodology,” said Jahanshahi. “The past four years we’ve been seeing more and more healthcare leaders beginning Six Sigma programs, but this includes more of the pharmaceutical, insurance and for-profit health systems, not direct, not-for-profit healthcare providers.”

So why is TMC becoming one of the first not-for-profit healthcare providers to use Six Sigma? “We are implementing Six Sigma now because it is consistent across many industries, businesses and companies that are trying to meet different challenges like marketplace instability, reimbursement rates and access to capital,” said Bluford.

The Lean Six Sigma program at TMC will be called “TMC Innovation Process (TIP)” and will begin in the fourth quarter of 2005. The launch of TIP will include the training and projects of Six Sigma blackbelts (approximately 4% of exempt employees) and greenbelts (approximately 40% of exempt employees).

“These projects will be across the organization and will be more about a shift in the culture of the organization,” said Jahanshahi. TMC expects to see improvements in the third quarter of 2006.

Bluford states that net effects of implementing Lean Six Sigma is to become a fit, trim, efficient and quality laden organization. “This is one of several tactics we are using to get to that state of affairs,” said Bluford. “You will see a quicker pace, more ideas and better execution of ideas.