SIX SIGMA IN HEALTH CARE

Six Sigma in Health Care



Six Sigma in Healthcare

Introduction

Although health care is probably the best in the world for the rich, its high cost and limited government intervention implies that it is weak or even nonexistent for the poor and unemployed. 15% of the U.S. population is uninsured, and publicly funded programs, Medicare and Medicaid only cover people over 65, disabled and poor. Over the past period, a variety of methodologies for process improvement from manufacturing and service operations have been switched to healthcare. These methods include thinking, which seeks to eliminate activities or process steps which do not add value to customers, queuing theory, which seeks to eliminate bottlenecks in processes and six sigma, which aims to reduce variation and create defect free services (Tennant 2001).

Discussion

Healthcare is heading for a serious crisis worldwide. Reforming and improving healthcare is one of the most troublesome issues facing the United States, Europe, and, indeed, the rest of the world. When we advocate the use of principles of quality management in healthcare, we must be careful about what we mean (Hagland 2009). There are many different approaches to quality management. Not all have been equally successful. The cost of incorrect or missed diagnoses is harder to estimate, but is undoubtedly high as well. Mistakes in diagnosis lead to inappropriate or even harmful treatments, as well as the need for additional care once the actual health condition is diagnosed (Trusko el al 2007). Finally, both diagnostic mistakes and inappropriate treatment Increase indirect costs because they require additional documentation and extra administration.

Increasing costs and decreasing coverage aren't the only factors bringing the employer-based healthcare system to its knees. The federal government has also taken a huge hit because of this financing mechanism, which not only doesn't require employees to pay income taxes on the healthcare benefits they receive hut also allows employers to deduct them from their taxes as expenses (Earp et al 2008). The U.S Treasury loses in excess of $200 billion per year because of this tax break—almost doubles the mortgage deduction.

Lately, most Americans are dissatisfied with the health system of their country, and many interest groups have lobbied politicians to change the system to one that guarantees universal coverage, by health insurance for all citizens. However, as every country in the world, many of the proposed reforms have been lost as political promises, and meanwhile the U.S. health system is deteriorates more each year according to public opinion (Hagland 2009). The only certainty is that America as a nation has not considered the issue of health as a human rights issue but as a free market enterprise. In this aspect, there are three landmarks that mark the daily debate on health system in North America:

1) the high costs of social security system and Medicare for United States

2) The inequality of the health system varies across different groups in society, including ethnic minorities in America (Ransom et al ...