Lean Six Sigma

I went to St. Kermit’s for my first Six Sigma class last Wednesday. In all honesty, it was a bit dry, very unorganized, and it felt…fluffy. So I emailed throughout the whole thing and stayed current on my communique with St. Fozzie’s. I will attend subsequent sessions, but it felt pretty elementary. I think it would have served me better a few years ago. Oh well, water under the bridge.

I've had frequent exposure to Six Sigma in the Muppet Corporation. Everything is driven towards utmost efficiency and all the hospitals were truly ahead of the curve in terms of data-driven process improvement. The premise behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure it, you can improve it. So you define a problem, measure corresponding data, analyze the data, improve processes, control future outcomes. Fun stuff, eh?

One of the great connections I made, however, involved the grant proposals I’ve been slaving over for the last two weeks. My Six Sigma project perfectly dovetails the grant proposal for Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in the OR suites . Because of the EMR software, cases take longer to document than they do to complete by the surgeons. This is a problem. I proposed it to the team and they readily agreed it’s a feasible, if huge, project. We’ll see how that plays out…my plate’s so full that I’m not sure I can take on another massive project without giving up something else. I may take a step back on the physician recruitment efforts or maybe the strategy stuff. Both are very time consuming and technically, they’re other peoples’ areas.

The grants were due today and I submitted them online. I’m not holding my breath for the $100k, but I AM glad for the experience. I also made friends with Chicago’s premier grant writing consultant, so she will be in touch with me when other suitable grants cross our path. I’ll get them some money sooner or later! Cha-ching!