Reducing the risk of healthcare‐associated infections through Lean Six Sigma: The case of the medicine areas at the Federico II University Hospital in Naples (Italy)

Abstract

Rationale, aims, and objectivesLean Six Sigma (LSS) has been recognized as an effective management tool for improving healthcare performance. Here, LSS was adopted to reduce the risk of healthcare‐associated infections (HAIs), a critical quality parameter in the healthcare sector.MethodsLean Six Sigma was applied to the areas of clinical medicine (including general medicine, pulmonology, oncology, nephrology, cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, and diabetology), and data regarding HAIs were collected for 28,000 patients hospitalized between January 2011 and December 2016. Following the LSS define, measure, analyse, improve, and control cycle, the factors influencing the risk of HAI were identified by using typical LSS tools (statistical analyses, brainstorming sessions, and cause‐effect diagrams). Finally, corrective measures to prevent HAIs were implemented and monitored for 1 year after implementation.ResultsLean Six Sigma proved to be a useful tool for identifying variables affecting the risk of HAIs and implementing corrective actions to improve the performance of the care process. A reduction in the number of patients colonized by sentinel bacteria was achieved after the improvement phase.ConclusionsThe implementation of an LSS approach could significantly decrease the percentage of patients with HAIs.

Using Six Sigma DMAIC Methodology and Discrete Event Simulation to Reduce Patient Discharge Time in King Hussein Cancer Center

“…The literature has several examples that tackle numerous problems, including reducing medical errors [14], improving pharmacist dispensing errors [15], lessening medication dispensing time [16], identifying variables affecting the risk of healthcare associated infections and decreasing the percentage of patients with healthcare associated infections [17, 18], and decreasing the length of stay and treatment imaging [19] just to mention few.…”

Can lean reduce infections? A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies

“…[18] HAIs are recognized worldwide as an important public health problem, and they are of increasing interest to politicians, patients, and the public. [19] Up to 2,609,911 new cases of HAIs occur every year in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA). [20] Multiple research studies report that in Europe hospital-wide prevalence rates of HAIs range from 4.6-9.3%.…”

“…At present, the monitoring and prevention of HAIs is a priority for the healthcare sector, and reducing the incidence of HAIs is used as an indicator of the quality of service provided. [19] Several identi ed causes of HAIs have been identi ed [30] such as the lack of standardized procedures [31][32][33][34] or inadequate sanitation procedures that can contribute to the spread of crossinfections. [35] Some estimate that 20-30% of HAIs are preventable through an extensive infection prevention and control programme.…”

Success Factors and Benefits of Six Sigma Implementation in Hospitals: A Systematic Review

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