Application of six sigma and 5 S to improve medication turnaround time

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to improve the medication turnaround time of a tertiary care hospital in Bangalore. The goal for improvement was set as 1 h based on the voice of external and internal customers and benchmark of two studies where the improvement results were 70 min and 66 min.

Background: There is documentary evidence that timely administration of medicines such as antibiotics results in a significant decrease in mortality and length of stay. The increased length of stay increases the cost of treatment for the patients and reduces the bed turnover rate for the hospital.

Method: DMAIC approach of Six Sigma together with the ‘Seiton’ principle of 5 S quality tool is used to reduce the medication turnaround time and to improve the sigma level of the process.

Results: At the end of the study the mean total turnaround time of 1 hr 29 min got reduced to 48 minutes and the sigma level got improved from 1.22 sigma level to 2 sigma level.

Conclusion: This study showcases that Six Sigma and 5 S can be used effectively to reduce the medication turnaround time, which enables in achieving the long term goals of patient satisfaction.

KEYWORDS:

• Pharmacy
• medication turnaround time
• medication administration
• quality improvement
• six sigma

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ankit Singh

Mr. Ankit Singh is working as Assistant Professor in the department of Hospital & Healthcare Management at Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences, A constituent of Symbiosis International (Deemed University) Pune, Maharashtra. He has rich experience in healthcare operations, quality, and marketing. Overall he has experience of 9 years in Industry, teaching, and research.

Shraddha Pradhan

Ms. Shraddha Pradhan is currently working as a Clinic Manager in the Darjeeling city of West Bengal. She has recently completed her Masters in Hospital Administration.

Priya Ravi

Ms. Priya Ravi is currently working as Assistant Manager in the Quality Department of Noble Hospital Pune, earlier than this she was associated with Central Referral Hospital; she has overall Industry experience of 9 years. Her areas of expertise are Hospital Operations, Healthcare Quality, and Patient Safety.

Srikrishna Dhale

Dr. Srikrishna Dhale is working as Assistant Professor at Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences, Pune, India. He is a management faculty, business consultant, and soft skill trainer and has 19 years of experience as varied as an industry, academic, administration, research, and consultancy.