Lean and Six Sigma in Glaucoma and Retinal Care

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world. In developed countries, retinal diseases are the most common cause of irreversible blindness. We’ll look at applications of Lean and Six Sigma in glaucoma and retinal care and finish with a video of the cause, diagnosis, and treatment for glaucoma.

Using Lean Methodology to Improve Glaucoma Clinic Patient Flow

In an article titled “Measuring impact of a quality improvement initiative on glaucoma clinic flow using an automated real-time locating system” authors John A. Musser and others discuss a lean‑methodology guided policy change and its impact on glaucoma clinic flow using an automated radiofrequency identification (RFID) based real‑time locating system (RTLS).

The article includes:

Clinic Process Timeline from Check-in to Check-out
Comparison of Patient Demographics and Visit Characteristics Before and After the Policy Change
Descriptive Statistics of Process Times and Wait Times During a Glaucoma Clinic Visit, Before and After the Policy Change

Copy and paste the following link into your browser to read the article.

Conducting a Lean Analysis for Integrating Patient Education in a Glaucoma Clinic

In a paper titled “Integrating Patient Education into the Glaucoma Clinical Encounter: A Lean Analysis” authors Paula Anne Newman-Casey and others discuss a Lean analysis to identify how often and when wait times occur during a glaucoma visit to identify opportunities for additional patient engagement.

“ … sufficient wait time exists during the visit for key portions of glaucoma education such as teaching eye drop instillation.”

Copy and paste the following link into your browser to read a pre-publication version of this paper.

Lean Six Sigma in a Retina Clinic

In an article titled “Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement in the Retina Clinic” author Thomas A. Ciulla discusses a Lean Six Sigma retina clinic process improvement example.

The article includes: