Lean Six Sigma Green Belt – Success Story – Hospital Project

Lean Six Sigma Green Belt – Success Story – Hospital Project

We are delighted to announce that one of our recent Lean Six Sigma Green Belts, Sean Paul Teeling of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital had his project shortlisted in the Best Hospital Project category of the twelfth annual Irish Healthcare Awards in Dublin last Thursday night – congratulations to Sean Paul on a great project, for which he received a well-deserved commendation.

Hospitals are starting to embrace the concept of Lean Six Sigma as they can see the benefits of these tools and techniques in helping them to improve patient care and system efficiencies in a healthcare system that is being asked to manage increasing demands on processes, people and budgets.

I recently attended the Mater Lean Symposium which was a most inspiring day and showed the tremendous work being carried by lots of hard working staff to drive change and improve process within the impressive new Adult Hospital.  The day positively merged months of green belt training with the presentation of a number of successful Lean Six Sigma projects completed by hospital staff.  These projects showed that real tangible change is possible with the right people, tools, training and hospital support.

Some of the ways that Lean Six Sigma can help within a Hospital;

1. Reduce the length of time a patient spends waiting for an appointment, a scan, a treatment or a bed.
2. Increase the throughput of patients utilising key resources, for example expensive equipment and tests, so diagnosis can be speeded up
3. Reduce unnecessary waste of resources – food, paper, supplies, cleaning, transport, beds, expertise.
4. Streamline communications between departments and functions so that patients get to where they need to be faster i.e. to theatre, out-patients, consultants, or more importantly, home.
5. Clear Sign-posting… how many times are hospital staff interrupted to answer a simple question??

Ireland is at a critical junction on our Healthcare Journey, wouldn’t it be great if we could empower people with the right tools, techniques and support to make this journey safe, cost-effective and sustainable for the long-haul?.

The opportunities are endless.