Here’s what you need to know:
1. The Lean approach, developed by Toyota, focuses on increasing customer value while reducing waste and inefficiency.
2. The Six Sigma approach, developed by Motorola, uses a data-driven methodology to eliminate variation and defects.
3. Both the Lean and Six Sigma approaches have been used to reduce waste and turnaround times in anesthesia supply chains, while also streamlining preoperative clearance of patients.
4. Although some organizations prefer one approach over the other, Mr. Mira notes that the techniques can complement one another to “yield important synergies that can improve quality, reduce costs and bolster patient and employee satisfaction.”
5. As an example, Mr. Mira describes how the surgical process improvement team at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic combined the two strategies to create process mapping, leadership support, staff engagement and sharing of performance metrics initiatives. These programs resulted in improvements in on-time starts and financial performance.
More articles on anesthesia:
FDA mandates warning labels for general anesthetic, sedation drugs: 4 things to know
American Association of Nurse Anesthetists speaks out on VA excluding CRNAs from final rule — 4 points
VA final rule allows APRNs to practice without clinical supervision; excludes CRNAs: 5 things to know
