Abstract
The World Health Organization considers the referral system, begun in 1978, to be one of the primary components of any medical system. Referral is the procedure of directing a patient to an appropriate specialist or agency. This research uses King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah, Saudi Arabia as a case study to explore using Lean Six Sigma as a way to improve healthcare referral system. King Abdullah Medical City received 16,807 referral requests in 2015, a 13.6% increase compared with 2014. Over time, the process of referral unwieldy, making the process less efficient and effective. By addressing the application of Lean principles and Six Sigma methodology to improve the referral process, this study reveals implications for their use in the healthcare industry. Then DMAIC methodology was utilized to decrease the delay in physicians’ response time to the referral system. After the Lean Six Sigma project was completed, a noticeable improvement in compliance to response times was achieved and sigma improved from 2.05 to 2.2; even greater improvement is expected after all of the long term recommendations have been applied.
Highlights
A referral can be defined as a procedure to transfer a patient from a healthcare organization which does not have sufficient resources to another healthcare organization that has better level of services, facility, experts or equipment’s
By addressing the application of Lean principles and Six Sigma methodology to improve the referral process, this study reveals implications for their use in the healthcare industry
This study aims to implement Lean Six Sigma methodology on the hospital referral processes to increase compliance of physicians’ response time to the referral system
Summary
A referral can be defined as a procedure to transfer a patient from a healthcare organization which does not have sufficient resources (such as facility, physicians, skills or equipment’s) to another healthcare organization that has better level of services, facility, experts or equipment’s. The second level is Secondary care which concern of providing advances health services to patients. Invented by the CEO of Toyota, TaiichiOhno, lean is a methodical approach that identifies and eliminates waste (and non-value-added activities) [2]. This can be achieved by continuous improvement and following with the production to the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection [2]. The crucial principle of a Lean supply chain is to generate a streamlined highly efficient system This system results in finished products that can more successfully satisfy customer demand with a minimum level of waste [4]. According to Mannon, Lean’s philosophy is based on eliminating the seven types of waste including the following: 1) Overproduction: producing more than required, before being required; 2) Inventory: retaining extra inventory in all processes; 3) Extra processing steps: completing more work than necessary; 4) Motion: any unnecessary activity such as picking up or placing (including wasted walking); 5) Defects: repair and correction; 6) Waiting: awaiting data or approval in receiving supplies or any other equipment; 7) Transportationwasted effort in transporting any equipment or materials between processes or in/out of storage [5]
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