Does Six Sigma Belong in the Healthcare Industry?
In many respects, six sigma has done most of this. Healthcare institutes that have adopted six sigma have seen dramatic savings and huge reductions in waste. They have seen their profits increase and their costs of operations decrease. But, it’s hard to say whether or not the patients overall experience have improved. The need to reduce waste and improve efficiencies has created a desire to standardize processes across the board. The problem with standardization is that not every patient is going to take the same amount of time to get serviced by a doctor or nurse. Patient requirements vary so the time that each patient needs will vary. But, six sigma encourages healthcare professionals to only spend a finite amount of time per patient. This could lead to errors in diagnosis and wrong medications being dispensed. If a nurse cannot get to the bottom of her patient’s problem because she can only spend fifteen minutes per patient, the incidents of wrong diagnosis could increase. And, this
