Public
American Hospital Association content that is available to the public and all website users.
Patient falls during hospitalization can lead to increased inpatient care costs, decreased patient satisfaction, an increase in unnecessary tests and treatments, longer lengths of stay, functional decline, disability and death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the…
Medical dispense overrides allow nurses to dispense medications from the Pyxis machine without pharmacy review in emergency situations. However, increasing the incidence of medication overrides can lead to greater risk of medication errors. For the period between Jan. 1, 2014, and March 31, 2014, a…
The organization used Lean Six Sigma process techniques to identify and support improved efficiencies in Medicare wheelchair approval within a durable medical equipment hospital affiliate. The improvement process focused on reducing wait time and creating additional capacity for newly referred…
Concussions are a growing problem for young athletes. The hospital's overall goal is to educate and raise awareness among athletes, parents, teachers and schools, and to provide a resource to help manage all aspects of concussions. The objective is to collect baseline test data for all local high…
The emergency department (ED) was experiencing an increase in door-to-doctor times due to high patient volume. Increased wait time negatively impacted care in the areas of patient throughput, costs and patient satisfaction. The issue also impacted four of the five organizational goals, specifically…
Troponin is a cardiac marker for acute myocardial infarction, making this lab test a key part of emergency management of chest pain patients. The project goal was to reduce turnaround time for troponin in a critical access hospital emergency department using Lean Six Sigma methodologies. Key…
The emergency department (ED) was experiencing extended lengths of stay for psychiatric patients, which was negatively impacting patient care, costs and throughput. These issues also impacted four of the five organizational goals, specifically those related to patient, staff and physician…
The goal of this project was to reduce the incidence of contrast-induced neuropathy (CIN) as a result of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). From January to May 2014, the cardiac catheterization lab completed 735 diagnostic-only procedures and 487 diagnostic and intervention procedures. The…
The organization sought to create a root cause analysis (RCA) structure that endowed greater focus, efficiency and effectiveness in the process. The health system had already broadly implemented a Lean Six Sigma-based (LSS) approach to quality improvement, which led to tremendous gains for the…
The organization used both discrete event and live simulation methodologies to ensure the smooth relocation of a perioperative services department. Within the Lean Six Sigma Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) framework, it examined current state process mapping, future state process…