Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare Expert Jay Arthur Interviewed by Business901

Only four percent (one action step out of every 25) causes over half of all medical mistakes and errors

Denver,CO (PRWEB) August 26, 2011

In a recent Business901 Podcast, Simplifying Lean and Six Sigma for Government and Healthcare, Jay Arthur author of numerous books on Lean And Six Sigma and most recently, Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals discussed making these methodologies available to the masses.

While Washington is struggling to figure out how to pay for healthcare reform, Jay Arthur, author of Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals, says that a handful of Lean Six Sigma tools will shave an estimated trillion dollars of preventable expense from the $2.5 trillion cost of healthcare. The right tools used in the right order can accomplish the savings in two-to-three years. In essence, performance improvements will pay for healthcare reform by providing fast, affordable, flawless healthcare.

While most Lean Six Sigma implementations are long, arduous, expensive efforts, it’s overkill for healthcare. Post-it™ Notes, control charts, pareto charts and fishbone diagrams will solve most of the problems facing healthcare, remarks Jay Arthur of the QI Macros.

Jay Arthur is the author of Lean Six Sigma Demystified software for Excel, which is used by more than 3000 hospitals says "only four percent (one action step out of every 25) causes over half of all medical mistakes and errors". Laser-focused improvement in these areas can deliver immediate bottom-line reduction in healthcare costs and adverse patient outcomes. Reduction in preventable costs will be offset by increases in overall care.

Why should Healthcare “pay” for healthcare reform by getting dramatically faster, better and cheaper? According to Press Ganey, Emergency Department (ED) turnaround times are stuck at four hours, unchanged for a decade. The 1999 study, To Err is Human, found that 99,000 patients a year die due to medical mistakes. In 2010, 99,000 died due to preventable hospital acquired infections, 150,000 died due to surgical complications. When asked if healthcare had made any progress on the challenge to improve over the last decade, the answer is not really.

The costs of waste and rework in any business, including healthcare,will range from 25 to 40 percent of the total ($800 billion to 1 trillon, says Paul O'neill, former U.S. Treasury Secretary).

Most of these costs come from preventable mistakes and avoidable procedures. Some of the solutions are already well known and proven in practice. Dr. Peter Pronovost created a five-item checklist for preventing central line blood stream infections (CLBSI) that dropped infection rates to zero in participating hospitals. Dr. Atul Gawande helped the World Health Organization develop a three-part surgical checklist that reduced deaths due to surgical complications by almost half. Nationwide implementation of these lifesaving checklists is still less than 20 percent.

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