Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement at Hospital X’s Emergency Department

Abstract

The opportunity to establish and outcome some frequently used industrial and process engineering tools in a 28-bed, hospital emergency department (ED), located in Puerto Rico, was presented to CIRACET Corp. With the determination to became a more efficient, effective, and compliant to meets society and business needs, the hospital decided to use their emergency department as the focus of a Lean Six Sigma study. Prolonged waiting times at the emergency department reduce quality of care and increase elopements. Patients believe to be discharge in less than 4 hours. For Hospital X’s emergency department, patient’s length of stay (LOS) was approximately 4.92 hours. Multiple deficiencies in the emergency room (ER) such as process effectiveness, patient flow, human resources, etc., were found. The analysis shows that reducing walking distances, relocating human resources, and changing the workflow within the clinical processes will achieve a patient’s length of stay lesser than 4 hours. Key Terms - DMAIC Six Sigma, Healthcare Institutions, Lean Manufacturing, Patient’s Length of Stay.