The paper aims to contribute to the continuous efforts to improve the health care sector performance. In any hospital, Emergency Department (ED) is one of the areas due to the dangerous condition of some patients, and their need for urgent care. To decrease the time for the patient waiting to be served which can benefit patients and the hospital alike, the prolong length of stay for the patients' in the ED has been studied. DMAIC methodology was used to properly define the problem, measure it, find legitimate cause, and reduce or eliminate them if possible. Furthermore, Lean concepts such as Kanban cards, Andon lights, and motion reduction techniques along other suggestions were made to improve the ED system. Arena simulation software was used to check the significance of the proposed solutions. This project resulted in a 40% decrease in number of patients' exceeding the target time of length of stay, decrease the length of stay by 50%, and finally reduce the cost on the hospital by a range of $35,819- 162,132. The overall improvements increased the Sigma Level from 1.11 to 3.03.
Reduction of Patient Prolonged Length of Stay in the Emergency Department using Lean Six Sigma
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