Executive Summary
In medical facilities, cost incurred in different sectors need to be managed in an effective manner. Both medical and support staffs need to be incorporated in designing of policies and mechanisms to maintain their expenses at low costs and yet offer quality services.
Quality medical attention is a human right, to ensure that they are available at an appropriate cost, all sectors in the hospital need to be analysed and areas of inefficiency recognised. Six-sigma is a management tool that approaches management from a scientific angle; it analyses an entire organizations processes and by creating relationships and data analysis, the area with a deficit is recognized, then coming up with appropriate strategies to minimize threats brought about by the inefficient system.
Background
Academic Medical Centre is a leading medical facility situated in Bijlmer, Netherlands; it doubles as a medical facility and a teaching centre for University of Amsterdam. To give quality services, resources are required; however, resources are limited, there is need to use the available resources in an appropriate manner.
When resources are used in the right manner, then the facility will offer services at an affordable rate and support research and development projects that are crucial in a medical facility. Efficiency in medical facilities has numerous benefits to the business; for example, it gives a facility competitive advantage in terms of expertise, research and customer base.
When a company implements a six sigma procedure, it ensure that there is efficiency in all processes in a business it uses scientific methods like data analysis to make decisions in a certain area. The process aims at attaining specializations in areas of interest in a way that the result will give an overall efficiency in an organization (Snee & Hoerl, 2002). It creates special infrastructure and labels the users of such processes as “Belts”. There are “green belts” and “barrack belt” among others.
Analysis of six-sigma policy in Academic Medical Centre
When implementing a six-sigma policy in business, a number of steps that need to be followed, they follow the policy of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control). All the above areas are looked into when developing a Six-sigma element in an organisation. Let us analyse the steps involved in each section:
Define
Academic Medical Centre has to understand the need to develop a six-sigma management tool; the tool should be taken as a strategic management tool when the company have recognised a deficit between the planned operation and the real operation. In a medical facility, the areas to consider include the costs expenditure, the satisfaction of patients and customer care. Concerns of customers are noted, the trade of profit is analyzed.
After the problem has been defined, the next stage is for the management to gather all relevant data and facts. Using the facts and data, alternatives of choices are formulated; customers who have complained may be called to give more details, budgets and corporate plans reviewed compare the company with other companies in the same industry, consider data from published and UN published sources. The information gotten will assist is establishing potential benefits (IPBs) and critical to quality factors (CTQ).
Measure
This stage the management takes time to identify the key factors that influence potential benefits (IPBs) and critical to quality factors (CTQ); it is the stage that is more time consuming because the management need to device measurement to be use to gauge the performance of the entire organization.
This stage the management with the assistance of departmental head should devise minimal standards required to be set for an appropriate implementation; they are guided by the corporate plan that was initially operating in the company. This happens after understanding the potential of a certain process. It is appreciated that it may not be possible to get a 100% outcome out of the projects/process in an organization; however, there is a minimal level that the system should not go (Pande, Neuman & Cavanagh, 2001).
Analyse
At this stage having, the potential benefits (IPBs) and critical to quality factors (CTQ) and the key factors that affect them, then an analysis of the root causes of the problem is embarked. The relationship among different variables is established and the areas that require immediate attention recognised.
Inefficiency in one-area leads to an inefficiency in another area, thus the source area should be interpolated and problem addressed directly. There are different method of analysing data, they include, Z-test, T-test, the chi-square and F-test. The method to be used in on particular approach is dependent with the organisation. Since Academic Medical Centre, has a variety of customer form different social classes, it is important to use Z-test (Pyzdek & Paul, 2009).
Improve
With deep problem understanding and having analysed data, the next stage is to choose the best alternative to implement. Since in a hospital situation there are a number of departments, various alternatives may need to be developed each responsive to the needs of a certain department.
Implementation team has a deep understanding of the problem at hand, has a well-defined picture of what is going on in an organization, understand departments with inefficiencies and the financial implications of the gaps. Alternatives are derived and the best alternative among the many is considered.
It is important to follow a scientific managerial decision making process. Managerial decision-making is the process through which managers arrive at the alternative solution to a given challenge facing an organization. The success of an organization is dependent on the quality of decision made its manager. One of the major attributes that make a good manager stand out is his or her decisiveness. The quality of decisions made will directly be reflected in the performance of his or her organization.
Control
The last stage is control of the implemented project; controlling teams need to have a experienced personnel’s who have been recognized to have a certain efficiency level in an area, they should be empowered to conduct their duties. Though it is the final stage, it carries a lot of weight since it oversees that every process in the organization has been fully upgraded. Feedback is of importance and considered for further decision making.
The following are some of the tools for this work quality control process charts, control charts, and standardization practices. Repeatedly there may be possibility that the company devise better ways of doing things and this should not be locked out be the system (Pande, Neuman & Cavanagh, 2001).
Recommendations and Conclusion
Academic Medical Centre need to develop an efficient Six-sigma management system; under the system the company will establish its areas of weakness and determine the appropriate strategies to implement to improve the overall performance of a the medical facility.
Other than focusing in one area, the policy will assist the company look into both medical staffs and support departments. The managers will be able to control cost so as they can offer quality services at an affordable rate and have enough finances for research and development.
References
Pande, S., Neuman, P.,& Cavanagh, R. (2001). The Six Sigma Way: How GE, Motorola, and Other Top Companies are Honing Their Performance. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Pyzdek, T., & Paul, A. (2009). The Six Sigma Handbook. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Snee, D., & Hoerl, W. (2002). Leading Six Sigma: A Step-by-Step Guide Based on Experience with GE and Other Six Sigma Companies. Upper Saddle River: FT Press.