Medication Station: Conducting FMEA for Medication Management : Joint Commission Perspectives on Patient Safety, Volume 4, Number 3, March 2004, pp. 7-8(2)
HACCP - Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points - esp for food safety
The current trend in Six Sigma education is to incorporate “Lean” methodology into Six Sigma training and implementation. This approach combines the Lean management principles of waste reduction with the Six Sigma tools of process improvement. The Lean approach is more focused on immediate improvement, using a smaller set of tools. -from Kaplan Continuing Education
Integrating Lean and Six Sigma by Michael Geoge, CEO, George Group [" Lean is a methodology that is used to accelerate the velocity and reduce the cost of any process (be it service or manufacturing) by removing waste."]
Robust Process ImprovementTM
Perpspectives, August 2010, Vol 30, #8, Pg04-
Perpspectives, April 2010, Vol 30, #4, Pg08-Update: Progress at The Center for Transforming HealthcareFYI: JCSC, LD, GB and PI. Since it began in September 2009, we have been following the Center For Transforming Healthcare (CTH) in TJC articles. CTH was announced in November and in December its first product, a 'Booster Pak' for MM.03.01.01 (Safe Medication storage/labeling) was unveiled. This article provides a brief update on three other projects currently in process related to Hand Hygiene, Hand-off Communications and Wrong-Site Surgery. In the third quarter of this year, fruits of the hand hygiene project should be rolling out. The article says this will include a free, new application that can customize a set of solutions based on your organization's specific demographics. The concepts of Robust Process Improvement (RPI) and Lean Six Sigma (L6S) were prominently featured. LD, GB and PI are again strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with RPI and L6S.ALERT: IC. SPHCC conducted a phone interview with Rick Morrow (director of Business Excellence at The Joint Commission) and Paul Shuyve, MD, (psychiatrist and Sr. Vice President at TJC) about the center and its projects. There are no psychiatric hospitals currently involved in the center's projects. However, Mr. Morrow offered a special invitation to any of our members who might be interested in participating in the last phase of the pilot experience for the Hand Hygiene project. Contact him quickly to see if he can work you in. He and Dr. Shuyve were certainly open and interested in having psychiatric hospital participation. And, at the pilot level, it is not necessary for an organization to be particularly expert in RPI. Dr. Shuyve pointed out that the new application referenced above is designed to help organizations that may not necessarily have the expertise to take advantage of RPI technology . He says the application's database is cause vs. solution based. So, if an organization can identify the cause(s) of their issue of concern, the application can assist them in navigating to appropriate solutions. TJC is definitely moving deeper into RPI, but Dr Shuyve assures us that while RPI will be encouraged, it is not likely to be a requirement for accreditation. As a beginning point for greater familiarization with RPI, we have requested permission to obtain and share the center's RPI Roadmap. We should be able to let you know how to get a copy soon. You can contact Mr. Morrow at 630/792-5239 or rmorrow@jointcommission.org or learn more online about the Center For Transforming Healthcare.
Source, Nov. '09, Vol 7 #11 Pg01-Redesigning the Process The Joint Commission Uses Lean Six Sigma for Robust Improvements[••REF••] In this article, TJC confirms its commitment to the concept of Robust Process Improvement (RPI). TJC has defined 4 levels of champions and sponsors for the process and actually implemented its own training program for what it calls green belts, black belts and change agents. Reported examples of RPI application to internal TJC processes include improving the e-App and reducing the post-survey report turnaround time to 10 days. There is currently no requirement for an organization to use RPI in its PI processes, but GB, LDR, PI and JCSC are encouraged to familiarize themselves with RPI. See also Making Health Care a High-Reliability Industry: The Joint Commission Launches Center for Transforming Healthcare in Patient Safety below.
For more on RPI and TJC see: Sustaining the Improvement We Need by Mark R. Chassin, MD (11/6/08) [especially slides 16-21] [HTML] (PDF)
