Improving patient care at a multi-speciality hospital using lean six sigma

Abstract

Healthcare has been an important necessity globally. Healthcare organizations have realized the importance of continuous improvement practices like lean six sigma (LSS). In this study, the authors examine the impact of LSS to improve patient care. A case study approach was selected to evaluate the operational excellence of a multi-speciality hospital. The data collected was analyzed using a novel approach, viz. SDMMAICS. The analysis helped to remove the bottlenecks and improve key performance metrics such as patient turnaround time (TAT), workforce utilization, and organizational profits contributing to the operational excellence of the cardiology department. The study reduced staff and teams' idle time with an annual saving of 3,44,3658 INR (44,000 USD). This study helps both research scholars and practitioners to understand how LSS helps transform healthcare organizations.

Keywords:

• Healthcare
• lean six sigma
• multi-speciality hospital
• cardiology
• operational excellence
• continuous process improvement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

D. Jinil Persis

Jinil Persis. D. is an Assistant Professor working at National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE-Mumbai, India) in Industrial Engineering and Manufacturing Systems area. She obtained her Ph.D. and Masters in Engineering with Industrial Engineering specialisation in 2015 and 2011 respectively from College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG), India. Her research interests include multi-objective optimisation and its application in network problems and machine learning models for healthcare, agriculture and manufacturing applications.

Anjali S.

Anjali S. is a Business Consultant at the Data & Analytics division, Mobius Knowledge Services, Chennai. She has obtained a postgraduate degree in Operations from the Department of Management at Amrita VishwaVidyapeetham, Kochi campus. Prior to this, she graduated from the Department of Applied Electronics and Instrumentation at Kerala University. Her research interests include Six Sigma, Strategic Productivity Management, and Lean Manufacturing. She holds technical certifications from Cadillac Automation and Controls and has also undertaken several Lean-Six Sigma projects for tertiary care hospitals.

Vijaya Sunder M

Vijaya Sunder M is currently working as an Assistant Professor, Operations Management at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India. In the past, he was the Head of Business Process Excellence at the World Bank Group. Vijaya holds his PhD in Operational Excellence, MBA and a bachelors degree in engineering. He is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, PMP, ISO 9001:2015 Quality Lead Auditor, and Lean Facilitator. He has led and mentored various reengineering and process improvement programs that helped improve the customer experience, employee satisfaction, eliminate process defects, increase productivity and reduce costs across reputed organisations including the World Bank, Barclays, American Express and Citi Group. His research and teaching interests include Operational Excellence, Project Management, Lean Six Sigma, Quality Management, Industry 4.0 and Operations Strategy.

Rejikumar G

Rejikumar G. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management, Amrita VishwaVidyapeetham, Kochi Campus. He has more than 28 years of professional experience in academics and industry. His areas of research interests include service operations, quality management, servicescape design, healthcare service quality, export operations etc. He is a life member of Operations Society of India. He has published in management journals like Electronic Commerce Research, The TQM Journal, Management Decision, Benchmarking, among others.

V. Raja Sreedharan

V. Raja Sreedharan is an Assistant Professor in the Supply Chain Management, BEAR Lab (Business, Economie et Actuariat), Rabat Business School, Université Internationale de Rabat, Morocco. He Graduated from the College of Engineering Guindy with a PhD in Lean Six Sigma and has published works in peer reviewed journals. His current research interests focus on managing the VUCA in the business operations, and process improvement for services industries. He also consults in the field of process optimisation with industries in private sectors.

Tarik Saikouk

Tarik Saikouk holds a PhD in Management Science from the University of Grenoble Alpes since 2013. He is also an engineer from the University of Technology of Troyes in France. He is currently associate professor in supply chain management at Excelia Business School in La Rochelle, France. He works on Lean Management issues and social dynamics within the supply chain. His publications record includes international articles in peer-review Journals, book chapters and research papers published in international refereed proceedings like TQM Journal, Supply Chain Forum and Economics Bulletin.