Abstract
The failures to properly educate students about process improvement can be seen as major factor leading to increased risks of patient safety and increased wastes in hospital settings. The purpose of this research was two-fold: 1) to identify characteristics that explain the efficacy of Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) based-tools while used by Industrial Engineering (IE) students on multidisciplinary teams in hospital; 2) to identify competencies needed by IEs for effective process improvement in hospital using PDSA based-tools. Exploratory mixed method design approach with survey study, unstructured interviews, and focus group discussions was used to collect the data. A regression analysis was used to identify PDSA based-tool characteristics perceived by IE students as instrumental for process improvement. Next, the abductive inference was applied to analyze qualitative data in order to investigate competencies needed for effective process improvement using PDSA based-tools.Using regression analysis, we found the brainstorming via visualization, recognizing root-cause(s) of the problem and selecting improvement measures via linking the process flow with task(s) characteristics to be the significant characteristics. From qualitative data analysis, we learned that IE students strived in technical analysis but lacked competencies in analyzing qualitative data needed for change implementation efforts. There is increasing evidence that success in achieving process improvement goals is at least partially attributable to implementation processes and contexts and not just to the nature of the technical solution. Therefore, IE students interested in working in hospitals must develop new competencies related to qualitative data analysis to manage change initiatives.
Highlights
Over the decade, increasing focus on the need to better prepare hospital workforce for quality and cost improvements has centered on continuous improvement methodologies (IOM, 2005), as virtually any improvement activity requires some degree of experimentation and participation of members from diverse functional departments (Deming, 1986)
Because process improvement leads to formation of new behavior, which supports acquisition of new knowledge and skills by employees, we believe that Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle is a critical element for effective continuous improvement in hospitals
The results indicate that Q5– Q6, Q7–Q8 (Recognizing root-cause(s) of the problem via linking the process flow with task(s) characteristics), and Q15–Q16 (selecting the improvement measures via linking the process flow with task(s) characteristics) are perceived by IE students as significant predictor variables of process improvement
Summary
Over the decade, increasing focus on the need to better prepare hospital workforce for quality and cost improvements has centered on continuous improvement methodologies (IOM, 2005), as virtually any improvement activity requires some degree of experimentation and participation of members from diverse functional departments (Deming, 1986). Scholars and leading healthcare improvement organizations have been promoting PDSA based-tools for process improvement to hospitals as one of the primary ways to enhance multidisciplinary efforts to increase quality and patient safety (IOM, 2005; Jimmerson et al, 2005; Mazur and Chen, 2008b). Despite the enormous potential of PDSA cycle for process improvement, little is known about characteristics of PDSA based-tools that make them effective while used on multidisciplinary teams in hospitals. Such deficits in knowledge can lead into improper use of such tools in the hospital environment and poor educational training of process improvement to students. Stage 1: Plan to improve your operations by identifying the problems and come up with ideas for solving these problems
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