Case Study: Can Six Sigma Work in Health Care?

Colin David is the CEO of a Southwest Louisiana Regional Medical Center (SLRMC), a small nonprofit hospital with 150 beds and 825 employees, offering a wide range of outpatient and inpatient services. Colin had just returned from a health care conference during which one of the keynote speakers—from the financial services industry—discussed the philosophy and benefits of Six Sigma and urged health care organizations to consider moving toward a Six Sigma framework. Colin was quite excited. However, he knew that changing the culture in a hospital was indeed difficult. However, he felt that if he could accomplish that, SLRMC could truly become a nationally recognized leader in the industry. In discussing the concept, the executive management team was also excited at the possibilities. They identified four key areas where they thought that Six Sigma could lead to significant benefits: patient services, quality assessment, financial management, and human resources. As time was running short for the meeting, the team concluded with one major action item: the directors in charge of each of these four areas were to develop a set of strategic Six Sigma projects that would form the basis for the initiative. However, after the meeting broke up, Colin realized that in their initial euphoria over the potential of Six Sigma, they had not thought of how to introduce it to the hospital staff and physicians, or how to manage the initiative. Colin decided that it would be best to call in a consultant to help. Because you were highly recommended, you have a meeting scheduled with Colin in one week.

Answer the following questions:

What would be your agenda for this meeting?

What questions would you need answered before proposing a Six Sigma implementation plan? How would you design an infrastructure to support Six Sigma at SLRMC?