Abstract

By employing lean Six Sigma strategies, daily team huddles, and incorporating the employees in the improvement process, Mercy Hospital St. Louis was able to cut down on wasted time and increase on-time surgeries and other procedures. The process began in 2007, and involved daily huddles with staff to discuss ways to innovate and improve on current processes. Wekk-long rapid improvement events took place once a month and entailed creating a new ways to organize and carry out tasks, and the staff would report back after the week was done. This led to many improvements in the time nurses spent caring for and prepping patients, as well as getting patients to the OR on time for scheduled procedures.