Lean Six Sigma Redesign of a Process for Healthcare Mandatory Education in Basic Life Support—A Pilot Study

Abstract

Healthcare staff are required to undertake mandatory training programs to ensure they maintain key clinical competencies. This study was conducted in a private hospital in Ireland, where the processes for accessing mandatory training were found to be highly complex and non-user friendly, resulting in missed training opportunities, specific training license expiration, and underutilized training slots which resulted in lost time for both the trainers and trainees. A pilot study was undertaken to review the process for accessing mandatory training with a focus on the mandatory training program of Basic Life Support (BLS). This was chosen due to its importance in patient resuscitation and its requirement in the hospital achieving Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation. A pre- and post-team-based intervention design was used with Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology employed to redesign the process of booking, scheduling, and delivery of BLS training leading to staff individual BLS certification for a period of two years. The redesign of the BLS training program resulted in a new blended delivery method, and the initiation of a pilot project led to a 50% increase in the volume of BLS classes and a time saving of 154 h 30 min for staff and 48 h 14 min for BLS instructors. The success of the BLS process access pilot has functioned as a platform for the redesign of other mandatory education programs and will be of interest to hospitals with mandatory training requirements that are already facing healthcare challenges and demands on staff time.

A Case Study of a Whole System Approach to Improvement in an Acute Hospital Setting

“…Members of the EMT were committed to attending training events and acting as executive sponsors as projects emerged. This confirmed leadership commitment through walking the walk, getting involved, and supporting the project [50][51][52][53][54][55][56].…”

“…Lean Six Sigma Redesign of a Process for Healthcare Mandatory Education in Basic Life Support-A Pilot Study [53].…”

“…The details for how each individual project achieved its goals are written up in the accompanying papers to this case study [50][51][52][53][54][55][56]. Some examples of quality and patient safety improvement include: a reduction in the length of stay for surgeries, leading to less likelihood of acquiring a healthcare-associated infection; an increase in capacity to deliver Basic Life Support across the organisation; surgical notes transferred to electronic platforms to improve legibility and accessibility; and releasing nursing and healthcare assistants time to care for patients.…”

“…For example, the Emergency Department data are circulated daily to the Emergency Department and EMT [54]. The use of LSS to redesign the delivery of Basic Life Support (BLS) training has resulted in a 50% increase in the capacity to deliver BLS [53]. Key to this was the academic qualification attached to the LSS training.…”

The Use of Lean Six Sigma Methodology in the Reduction of Patient Length of Stay Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Surgery

“…The objective of this study was to redesign and improve the process for the postoperative care of patients who have undergone ACLR surgery. We used LSS methodology due to its demonstrable impact on patient outcomes and patient experiences of care in healthcare settings, in both clinical and non-clinical areas [29,30], and its successful use within the study site previously [7,26,28,31,32]. To facilitate our improvement approach, we posed the question 'Can the application of LSS to the process for ACLR post-operative surgery care reduce patient LOS?'…”