Productivity and performance improvement in the medical records department of a hospital

Shreeranga Bhat, E.V. Gijo and N. A. Jnanesh

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 2016, vol. 65, issue 1, 98-125

Abstract: Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology was applied to a medical records department (MRD) of a hospital in India to reduce the Turn-Around-Time (TAT) of medical records preparation process and thus to improve the productivity and performance of the department. Design/methodology/approach - – The research reported in this paper is based on a case study carried out using LSS approach and in improving the medical records preparation process. Findings - – The root causes for the problem were identified and validated through data-based analysis from LSS tool box, at different stages in the project. As a result of this project, the TAT was reduced from average 19 minutes to eight minutes and the standard deviation was reduced by one-tenth, which was a remarkable achievement for department under study. This was resulted in the reduction in the work-in-process inventory of medical records from 40 units to 0 at the end of the day. Project in-turn reduced the staffing level from the earlier level of six to a current level of four. Research limitations/implications - – The paper is based on a single case study executed in IP-MRD of a single hospital and hence there is limitation in generalizing the specific results from the study. But the approach adopted and the learning from this study can be generalized. Originality/value - – This paper will be helpful for those professionals who are interested in implementing LSS to healthcare organization to improve the productivity and performance.

Keywords: Lean Six Sigma; Healthcare; Value stream mapping; Analysis of variance; Spaghetti diagram; Turn-around-time (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ijppmp:v:65:y:2016:i:1:p:98-125

DOI: 10.1108/IJPPM-04-2014-0063

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management is currently edited by Dr Luisa Huatuco and Dr Nicky Shaw

More articles in International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().