In May of this year, we had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Jill Waters, Lean Six Sigma Coordinator at Adventist Health, which is a not-for-profit healthcare organization comprised of over 20 hospitals and over 30 clinics in the U.S.
Jill shared a ton of invaluable process improvement and innovation insights she has learned during her time at Adventist.
In this article, we highlight five key takeaways.
Key takeaways from Adventist Health’s Jill Waters
1. In der einfachen Beobachtung liegt die Kraft.
Jill told a story about how she spotted a barrier to efficiency for an Adventist Health hospital when she first joined the company.
Das Unternehmen war dabei, von manuellen auf elektronische Krankenakten umzustellen, was bedeutete, dass jedes Krankenhaus die Umstellung vornehmen musste. Dies führte unweigerlich zu einer Lernkurve, die, wenn sie nicht angegangen wird, den Fortschritt verlangsamen kann.
One hospital in particular, where Jill was temporarily placed, experienced slowdown in progress. They were 3 months behind due to performing unnecessary work.
In two-days, Jill was able to spot the wasteful steps by simply observing what the department was doing. She then trained the staff on the correct way to use the elcontronci medial record equipment fix, which got the hospital back up to speed.
This is an example of how the power of simple observation can lead to significant change, which is the very essence of process improvement. All it takes is one individual to spot a better way of doing something to be more efficient and productive.
2. Kleine inkrementelle Verbesserungen können zu großen Veränderungen führen.
Incremental improvements are significantly easier to implement than large, disruptive transformation.
Es sollte jedoch ein Gleichgewicht zwischen der Zusammenarbeit mit den Mitarbeitern zur Erzielung inkrementeller Verbesserungen (kurzfristige Gewinne) und dem Streben nach großen systemischen Veränderungen (langfristige Gewinne) bestehen.
3. Empower the directors and managers of departments.
When it comes to running an ideation program where process improvement is a focal point, the program manager doesn’t need to be the person that knows it all. Instead, it’s his or her responsibility to give power to department directors and managers. After all, they’re the ones who know where inefficiencies and problem areas lie since they experience them on a day-to-day basis.
Empower directors and managers by giving them a simple way to share the problems their team experiences day-to-day and potential solutions to them.
4. For process improvement to work effectively, it starts at the top.
Jill erzählte, wie der CEO von Adventist Health's Central Valley Region darauf gedrängt hat, dass die Mitarbeiter auf der Ebene der Führungskräfte und Direktoren die verschiedenen Methoden zur Prozessverbesserung erlernen, um neue Wege zur Verbesserung bestehender Prozesse und Möglichkeiten zur Weiterentwicklung zu finden.
Dies ist ein wichtiger Punkt. Führungskräfte, insbesondere CEOs, müssen sich voll und ganz auf die Initiativen einlassen, die die Mission, Vision und Strategie des Unternehmens bestimmen. ob es sich um ein Produkt oder eine Ausbildung handelt. CEOs müssen mit gutem Beispiel vorangehen.
5. Hunderte von Menschen in einen Raum zu setzen, um ein Brainstorming durchzuführen, ist weder praktisch noch skalierbar.
When you have 10 people that make up a department, brainstorming in a room is easy. But when you have hundreds maybe thousands of employees, brainstorming isn’t as straightforward. This is one reason why many companies turn to Planview IdeaPlace’s idea management software. They need an easy way to brainstorm and collaborate with thousands of employees who are distributed around the world.
Abschließende Gedanken
Adventist Health is pioneering a new era of process improvement through company-wide ideation to great success.
To hear more about Adventist Health’s ideation program and process improvement efforts, I highly recommend you watch this on-demand webinar.
