Lean Six Sigma in a hospital environment

The facility is a medium-sized hospital serving five communities in south central Texas. It had gained a reputation for long emergency room waiting times, resulting in local residents driving 30 miles or more to hospitals in neighboring major metropolitan areas. The facility also experienced declining customer satisfaction ratings. The hospital hoped to improve its wait times in order to keep more of the communities' residents visiting their facility, closer to home.

SBTI was selected to send a master black belt consultant to select the project team and lead the project. Team members were selected from the emergency department (ED) and other ancillary departments including laboratory, radiology, materials management and registration. The team worked through SBTI's Lean Sigma DMAIC roadmap using Six Sigma and lean tools to identify the sources of the problems leading to long wait times.

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