Hospitals and Six Sigma Method

1. Summary: Lee Revere writes in Journal of Healthcare Management that hospitals are using the Six Sigma method to ensure that medication errors in hospitals are reduced or eliminated. According to one study, at least 7,000 deaths a year result from medication errors in U.S. hospitals. Revere suggests that hospitals are excellent candidates for the Six Sigma method because of their need and desire to reduce errors. Also, in a litigious society such as the United States, the fewer mistakes hospitals make the less hospitals will spend for malpractice insurance and on settling claims with injured patients.

Revere explains that to achieve Six Sigma, a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities, and a defect is defined as anything outside of customer specifications. The fundamental objective of the Six Sigma methodology is the implementation of a measurement-based strategy that focuses on process improvement and variation reduction through the application of Six Sigma improvement projects. Six Sigma is often used as part of a hospital's Total Quality Management (TQM) program. Revere adds that in traditional TQM programs problems are measured and studied before changes are made. A Six Sigma program requires that a problem be addressed as soon as it has been identified. The goal of Six Sigma is not to gather and evaluate data. Instead, data gathered is the basis for action. Revere describes the impact the Six Sigma program has

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Improving nurse retention * Reducing inventory levels of drugs and other hospital supplies along with their associated carrying costs * Reducing waiting time in the emergency room waiting area * Reducing the time between seeing a doctor in the emergency room and being admitted to the hospital if necessary 4. The idea behind Six Sigma in this article is that if a hospital can measure how many defects it has in a process, it can systematically eliminate them and get as close to zero defects as possible. There are a number of ethical issues associated with the measurement of medication errors discussed in this article. Specifically, the hospitals were most concerned with medication errors that resulted in patient deaths. They were less concerned about errors that result in harm but did not cause death. However, the study ignored medication errors that did not result in harm or death. The ethical question is this: Is the hospital deliberately ignoring or dismissing as unimportant medication errors that do not result in harm or death. The other ethical issue that was not addressed is this: Who decides whether a medication error causes harm? Another way of addressing this issue would be to ask: Is it even possible f

Category: Medical - H