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Eary Ott Carlow University Question 2: How do you think using manufacturing improvement models like TPS and Six Sigma will improve healthcare? The Institute of Medicine (IOM) identified six specific aims for improvement. “These aims are built around the core need for health care to be: Safe, Effective, Patient-centered, Timely, Efficient, and Equitable. ” (2001, p. 3). Lean management has addressed many of these issues in the manufacturing world but I believe the elements utilized by Toyota Production System (TPS) have been shown to be used by healthcare to improve patient safety and efficiency, two of the needs identified by IOM. The lean approach is therefore focused on getting the right things to the right place at the right time in the right quantity to achieve perfect workflow while minimizing waste and being flexible and able to change. ” (Lighter, 2011, p. 239) This is exactly what we need to do in health care and these models give us a structured proven way to make the improvements so vital to our continued success. An example TPS’s “autonomation (automation with a human touch)” (Lighter, 2011, p. 33) the need for machines to be “smart”, are the Smart pumps we currently use for IV infusion and PCA pumps. These pumps ensure that the correct medication is infusing at the correct rate in the correct concentration. Each pump has “guardrails” which are guidelines for the maximum concentration and rate of infusion for the medications, utilizing the guardrails ensures the patient is safely receiving the medication. I really do not understand Six Sigma, I need a copy of Six Sigma for Dummies if anyone can suggest something I can read or explain this to me I would really appreciate it.
From what I can understand I think this could be utilized in the lab or radiology but cannot see how to use it in nursing. Question 3: Discuss if standardization is an effective way to control costs and improve quality. There is a place in health care for standardization; there are definitely processes and procedures that will prove to be safer if standardized but it is not an answer to all the issues in health care today. “Standardized approaches to a number of healthcare processes, however, have become a way for the industry to reduce the probability of errors and improve patient safety. (Lighter, 2011, p. 231) Utilizing “Time-out” process during bedside procedures is an example of a standardized process which will prevent errors and improve patient safety by taking the time to make sure it is the right patient receiving the right procedure at the right time. If a pigtail catheter is put into the wrong lung harm can be done to the healthy lung and the fluid will not be drained from the bad lung. This could cause increased pain to the patient not to mention increase length of stay, both of which have great cost.
Another example of standardization of practice is the scanning of medications and patients which prevent medication errors by ensuring the right patient is getting the right medication at the right dose and the right time. This prevents errors which are costly to the patient and the institution. Lighter, D. E. (2011). Advanced Performance Improvement in Health Care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. The Institute of Medicine (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new healthcare system for the 21st century. Washington, DC: The National Academy of Science.