Terrill Paradise, Six Sigma Black Belt, Columbus Regional Hospital

Terrill Paradise, an ASQ member since 1992 and a senior fellow, has worked for Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, IN, since 2001.

Paradise has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree of science in engineering and an associate’s degree of applied science in engineering. Additionally, he is an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, ASQ Certified Quality Engineer, quality technician and mechanical inspector. Paradise also spent six weeks of training in Japan at the Toyota World Headquarters. He continues on-going training with lean and Six Sigma tools.

Although Paradise initially wanted to be an accountant for his grandfather’s business, he eventually turned to quality after listening to W. Edwards Deming interviews and stories.

A 20-year veteran of quality, he got his start in manufacturing. “I have been a quality engineer and quality manager in different manufacturing facilities such as Honda and Toyota family suppliers,” he said. At Toyota, he was involved with the design and processing of aluminum wheels, and the design and assembly of manual and power seats. With Honda, Paradise was involved in the design and assembly of fuel injection systems.

At Columbus Regional Hospital, Paradise leads and facilitates lean projects throughout the complex. Paradise’s additional duties include performing data and statistical analysis for each project, reporting and communicating with the executive team at the hospital on the status of projects, as well as helping the project selection. “All of my time at Columbus Regional Hospital is spent working with lean Sigma teams and projects,” Paradise said. He also provides extra support to other departments related to data analysis and reporting.

Paradise said some of the greatest challenges in healthcare today include staying on top of the current and new technology while keeping the culture of patient first mentality. “Many organizations want to buy and implement new technology without really assessing the real need,” he said. Challenges facing the quality professional include the on-going changes to accreditation and regulatory requirements, the speed at which new technology is becoming available and being able to take the time to properly train the staff for utilization.

Throughout his quality career, Paradise said he has benefited the most from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and ASQ’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement. For those new to quality, Paradise said the best advice he can offer is to stick with it, and quality principles and concepts are not just about the data or statistics. “The benefits far outweigh any of the headaches,” he said.

When he’s not applying quality principles at the hospital, Paradise is an adjunct instructor for quality related courses at one of the local universities and he tutors local students in statistics. Outside of work, Paradise has been known to use a cause and effect matrix to help identify vacation destinations for his family.

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