Title: Continuous improvement efforts in healthcare: a case study exploring the motivation, involvement and support necessary for success

Authors: Jami Kovach, Luis De la Torre, David Walker

Addresses: Department of Information and Logistics Technology, College of Technology, University of Houston, 312 Technology Building, Houston, Texas 77204, USA. ' Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, University of Houston, 815 TMAC Building, Houston, Texas 77204, USA. ' Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, University of Houston, 815 TMAC Building, Houston, Texas 77204, USA

Abstract: In production environments, improvement efforts focus on reducing defects and/or improving efficiency. Yet, in service industries, customer satisfaction is often the primary concern; therefore, improvement efforts generally focus on reducing errors or mistakes. One specific type of service environment is a healthcare facility. Because the health and safety of human beings is the primary consideration in the healthcare industry, error reduction is paramount in this field. Healthcare facilities are, however, businesses, so in addition to concerns relative to the quality of patient care and patient safety, they are also interested in reducing operating expenses and improving the efficiency of their operations. In this work, we use a focus group composed of experts within the healthcare field to explore the current issues in healthcare and investigate how the represented healthcare facilities use continuous improvement initiatives such as Lean principles and the Six Sigma methodology to address these issues.

Keywords: six sigma; lean production; healthcare; continuous improvement; Toyota production system; TPS; total quality management; TQM; Texas Medical Center; Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center; TMAC; kaizen; error reduction; patient care; patient safety; operating expenses; operational efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCA.2008.021839

International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, 2008 Vol.4 No.3, pp.254 - 269

Published online: 05 Dec 2008 *

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