Peer Response. W-4, DQ-7. (EL)
NOTE: All posts should have three paragraphs with three sentences.
All entries should have references and citations.
Application of Six Sigma in Healthcare
Question 1. Is a Six Sigma failure rate a reasonable goal for all health care organizations?
The six sigma model monitors and controls processes through continuous measurement, analysis, control, and improvement. The six sigma model achieves 99.9997% accuracy (Hernández-Lara et al., 2021). Impliedly, in a million cases, only 3.4 cases of error should be reported; while this would be a satisfactory goal in most sectors, the six sigma failure rate is not a reasonable error frequency in healthcare. Errors in healthcare can be fatal; therefore, management should ensure that perfection is achieved. Creating allowances for errors in health care may result in the loss of human life; accordingly, it is unreasonable to adopt a margin of error when human life is involved.
Question 2. Should the health care industry be willing to accept higher error rates than the banking or airline industries?
The healthcare industry should not be willing to accept higher errors than the banking and aviation sectors. Banking and aviation industries operate with great accuracy resulting in low margins for error. The aviation industry, in particular, has achieved near-perfect levels of safety through implementation of dedicated safety measures. Conversely, the healthcare industry has been comparatively lax, with medical errors being the third leading cause of death in the United States (Rice, 2020). Arguably, this unfortunate statistic proves the error tolerance rates that have contributed to laxity. The healthcare industry should strive to have the lowest error rates. While it may not be possible to achieve a perfect result, the banking and aviation industries have demonstrated that near-perfect error rates can be achieved.
Question 3. Do you believe the majority of error rates are reported?
Errors in healthcare are severely under-reported. Aljabari and Kadhim (2021) observe that under-reporting remains widespread and has risen to become a barrier to effective health research. The scholars identify the fear of consequences, hostile working environments, and the lack of feedback mechanisms as the leading causes of under-reporting. Evidently, there is a need to review these barriers to increase the rate of error reporting.
References.
Aljabari, S., & Kadhim, Z. (2021). Common barriers to reporting medical errors. The Scientific World Journal, 2021, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6494889
Hernández-Lara, A.-B., Sánchez-Rebull, M.-V., & Niñerola, A. (2021). Six sigma in health literature, what matters? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(16), 8795. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168795
Rice, S. (2020, February 10). What can healthcare learn from aviation safety? Forbes. Retrieved January 21, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenrice1/2020/02/07/what-can-healthcare-and-other-fields-learn-from-aviation-safety/
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|