Lean Six Sigma Applications and Heart Surgery

“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for 17.5 million deaths every year, of which 80% occur in low- and middle-income countries. Some 75% of the world does not have access to cardiac surgery when needed because of lack of infrastructure, human resources, and financial coverage. This study aims to map access to cardiac surgery around the world.”*

We’ll look at applications of Lean and Six Sigma in heart surgery around the world in the Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, and the USA and finish with a video of a production line application to heart surgery in India.

*Source

Reducing Cardiac Surgical Cancellations Through Lean Six Sigma: Netherlands

In a paper titled “Reducing surgical cancellations: a successful application of Lean Six Sigma in healthcare” authors Stijn Schretlen and others discuss their use of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology to reduce cardiac surgical cancellations in a University Medical Center in the Netherlands where approximately 20% of cardiac surgeries were being cancelled.

The paper includes:

Pareto Chart For Cancellations. ICU, Intensive Care Unit
5 Whys Analysis with Improvements
Process Map with High Level Improvements
I Charts Pre and Post Intervention
Impact of Interventions

You can read the paper here.

Reducing the Acute Myocardial Infarction Mortality Rate Using Lean Six Sigma: Italy

In a study titled “Lean Six Sigma to reduce the acute myocardial infarction mortality rate: a single center study” authors Angelo Rosa and others discuss the use of Lean Six Sigma to identify the root cause and understand the mortality rate for Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI)I and to redesign the

patient management process in order to improve it.

The study includes:

Value Stream Map Before Project
Value-Add, Non-Value Add and Necessary Non-Value Add Activities Before Project
Ishikawa Diagram for Mortality Rate at 30 Days
Corrective Actions and Indicators
Future Value Stream Map
Value-Add, Non-Value Add and Necessary Non-Value Add Activities After Project

Copy and paste the following URL into your browser to read the study.

Improving Day of Surgery Admissions Using Lean Six Sigma: Ireland

In a paper titled “Using Lean Six Sigma to improve rates of day of surgery admission in a national thoracic surgery department” authors Rachel Brown and others discuss the use of Lean Six Sigma methods to enable improvements to both the operational process and the organizational working of the thoracic surgery department over a period of 19 months.

Note: thoracic surgery refers to operations on organs in the chest, including the heart, lungs and esophagus. Examples of thoracic surgery include coronary artery bypass surgery, heart transplant, lung transplant and removal of parts of the lung affected by cancer.

The paper includes:

Gantt Chart for Research Study Timeline
Fishbone Diagram of Causes of Non-Value Add in the Process
Summary Table of Study Outcomes
Streamlined Process Map
Rework Percentages of Pre-operative Tests Timeline

Copy and paste the following URL into your browser to read the paper.

Implementing a Perioperative Insulin Protocol in a Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care Unit: USA-Maryland

In a paper titled “Successful Implementation of a Perioperative Glycemic Control Protocol in Cardiac Surgery: Barrier Analysis and Intervention Using Lean Six Sigma” authors Elizabeth A. Martinez and others describe the use of Lean Six Sigma methodology to implement a perioperative insulin protocol in a cardiac surgical intensive care unit (CSICU) in a large academic hospital.

The paper includes: