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because patients matter |
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The
National Healthcare Group (NHG) jointly organised
its inaugural Six
Sigma Convention on Healthcare Process Improvements
with GE Medical Systems Asia and the Ministry of
Finance on 18 January 2003.
Early adoption of Six Sigma
Two years ago, the NHG institutions were among the first public agencies in Singapore
to promote the use of Six Sigma for group problem solving and quality improvement
projects. Since then, the institutions have embarked on 30 Six Sigma projects
of which 19 have been completed.
Adopting the Six Sigma methodology is part of NHG’s overall strategy to
deliver quality patient care in a “better, cheaper, faster and safer” manner.
Today, one of the key challenges facing the healthcare industry in Singapore
is providing affordable quality care to patients. A multi-pronged approach is
needed to keep costs in check, and this is often achieved by improving processes.
To date, NHG institutions have used the Six Sigma methodology to improve various
processes such as patient admission and billing.
Deserving teams win awards
At
the convention, Mr Lim Siong Guan, Permanent Secretary
of the Ministry of Finance and Head Civil Service,
gave away awards to the best Six Sigma project
teams.
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| Ms
Tan Mei Lin from NUH receiving the
gold award on behalf of her team
from Mr Lim. |
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| Mr
Ng Kian Swan from AH was also presented
the gold award. |
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Gold awards were presented to a team from National University Hospital (NUH)
and another from Alexandra Hospital (AH).
The NUH team embarked on their project in October 2001 to improve the billing
process at the hospital. Then, patients who had undergone an operation received
an interim bill upon discharge and a final bill about one month later. The delay
was mostly due to late entries of operating theatre charges.
With the aim to ensure that patients receive their final bill upon discharge,
the team implemented process improvements to make sure that after an operation,
the charges are updated into the system immediately. The results are noteworthy:
While previously, 44% of the patients received their final bill upon discharge,
the percentage has since risen to 85%.
The team from AH also introduced changes that have significantly improved service
delivery. Their project saw the reduction of time taken to admit a patient at
the Department
of Emergency Medicine from more than 60 minutes prior to September 2001 to 37
minutes within two months of the project
implementation.
The AH project team also designed a real-time computerised Bed Occupancy Status
System that allows staff to check the number of available beds in the wards and
the overall hospital occupancy rate online.
Using the right tool is vital
In his speech at the convention, Mr Lim said, “WITs and Six Sigma have
an important role to play in the quality improvement process. Which tool to use
is dependent on the nature of the problem.”
He said that NHG has found that Six Sigma is highly suited for solving problems
that involve a vast amount of data collection and analysis, such as slow turnaround
in hospitals.
Dedicated to improving healthcare
In his opening address, Mr Tan Tee How, CEO of NHG, said that the convention
marked a milestone in NHG’s quality journey. “It reaffirms our commitment
towards providing good, cost-effective and accessible healthcare, in line with
our vision of adding years of healthy life to the people of Singapore,” he
said. |
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By Dalwara Singh, NHG
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