Lean Six Sigma Martini Hospital in Groningen

“We were already familiar with Lean,” said Patrick Wennekes at Martini Hospital, “we work with Lean improvement boards and on a continuous improvement culture on the shop floor.” Patrick Wennekes is project leader of the Process Management & Improvement team, whose goal is to create a continuous improvement culture in the hospital through training, consulting and improvement programs.

“However, while doing Lean, we found that we really needed Six Sigma methodologies. In fact, we work here with specialists in the hospital and they are all people with academic backgrounds. We communicate easier and better with each other based on data rather than opinions. This is one of the reasons why a number of colleagues took the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training in late 2015.

After we listed a number of options, Symbol was chosen because it could also deliver the training in Groningen. In the end, the training even took place at Martini Hospital, with a number of participants from outside the hospital attending. This included a health insurance company which again gave a very nice dynamic in the group.

Project: Preventing errors in DBC creation

During the training we started a number of projects. The first project involved an improvement process around Diagnosis Treatment Combinations (DBCs). Based on these DBCs, hospitals are paid by insurers. We set up the project using the DMAIC methodology. By mapping and improving the process, the quality of DBCs improved to the point where 1 FTE could be saved. This time is now devoted again to our patients. What I found most striking in this process was that colleagues spent an enormous amount of time fixing mistakes. In short, it was accepted that a department was busy fixing mistakes rather than investing in improving the process. That’s weird, though… The same principle applies to our waiting rooms. We invest in beautiful waiting rooms, thus unconsciously taking waiting for granted, when in fact waiting is a waste!

My tent is Lean!

Recently we started another very interesting project. Through Lean Six Sigma training, we were inspired to completely Lean one department within our hospital. The project name for this is “My Tent is Lean!” The space for the improvement team is now set up. The first projects started in January 2017, starting with 5S, standardization and making waste visible. We work in project teams. A key goal is to also change the culture so that people are much more in improvement mode. Then we will also train people in everything needed to make the translation to a completely Lean equipped and functioning department, such as 5S or Lean Six Sigma Orange Belt training. This project should be completed by October 2017.

Lean Six Sigma in the Martini Innovation Platform

All in all, Lean Six Sigma is alive and well within Martini Hospital and we have high expectations for it. We are undergoing a major organizational change, with the goal of making care more predictable. We are now still organized into blocks: Cardiology, Orthopedics, etc. We want to move toward an organization that works in processes, across the “blocks. This change creates many projects of processes that need to be redesigned or optimized.

Lean Six Sigma projects have been notified in the Martini Innovation Platform since summer 2016. This platform also includes management, specialists and the finance department. This has the great advantage of aligning the projects with the Martini Hospital’s strategic goals. So a great platform to get the projects more widely known and supported within the organization.

Predictable and affordable care in the future

From every project you learn. What I notice is that we are now trained to set up and tackle improvement projects based on concrete data. Improvement based on data is still an understudy, especially in healthcare. In the current situation, these improvement initiatives must come from us. We received training for this purpose and we put what we learned into practice. Now we need to build this further within the organization. Lean Six Sigma really adds value. With concrete data and based on facts, we can also more easily convince colleagues of the necessary changes.

KPIs are still rarely used in healthcare. Here at Martini Hospital, we are going to be much more focused on it and using Lean Six Sigma methodologies in the future to contribute to making care predictable and affordable for the customer, without sacrificing quality.

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