Lean Six Sigma can literally save the future of healthcare. With the Baby Boomer population getting older, more and more of them are seeking reliable healthcare. Coinciding with the fact that according to the Institute of Medicine, between 44,000 – 98,000 patients died from preventable errors, we certainly have a healthcare crisis on our hands.
Adding insult to injury is the fact the that data shows that rising healthcare costs for services are inflated by 30-80%, without any rhyme or reason.
The tool known as the 5 Whys in root cause analysis (RCA) is one of the most important tools that can literally eradicate the underlying cause of specific problems, or better said, identify potential root causes. You can brainstorm and keep asking why on the potential cause and subcause, and keep going until you finally arrive at the root cause.
Variation is a huge culprit in errors being made. Look at all the data and see exactly where in the process the errors are being made. Once you find that, you must make a change in the process so that particular error won’t reoccur. The data will back the change being made to the process.
Root cause analysis is very important in fixing the cause of the problem instead of just dealing with the symptom. Behind every mistake and problem there is waste, and behind waste there is cost.
The benefits of conducting a root cause analysis are:
- Prevents future errors in healthcare, which results in saved lives
- Lower costs
- Increased patient satisfaction
- Increase profit without rising costs
Since healthcare affects us all, mistakes cannot happen especially since one mistake in our personal healthcare can be a matter of life or the lack of…
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