![]() Or drug interaction applications for the smart phones: for every client I work with, I check their medications in Epocrates, a program on my phone that will alert me to possible problems. A good example is the bar coding that is appearing on medication packets in hospital: those codes are matched to the patient’s wristband so the likelihood of the wrong medication being given to the patient is greatly reduced. That we use technology in the best ways we can to increase the likelihood of six sigma outcomes.What, then, becomes important in healthcare? So we are left in a medical world with imperfect people, complex decisions and limited resources. Is every day a “six sigma” day for people trying to decide about their healthcare? Also no. ![]() Is every day a “six sigma” day without mistakes? No. Providers have good days and bad days, just like everyone. Providers are affected by training, experience, ability to work with diverse populations, persistence, curiosity, and compassion. If three people are diagnosed with a leukemia, factors such as age, access to healthcare, insurance coverage, available economic resources, geographic area of the country, family dynamics, religious and spiritual values-all will affect their decisions about the course of treatment they wish. While, from a technical standpoint, we could produce equipment and technology that reaches six sigma, people do not function in the same way, and by “people” I mean providers as well as the people they care for. One factor is the unpredictability of both medical conditions and human beings. What stops us from achieving these goals? We would have working models of treatment for complex medical conditions, and these models would be successful. Surgeries would be successful, with only a few exceptions diseases would be cured, except for a very few people equipment would function with almost no failure professionals would make very few mistakes. What would six sigma look like in healthcare? As we step into the next levels of healthcare technology, the desire for six sigma in healthcare will increase. In the world of manufacturing, the term “six sigma” refers to the ability to produce items that are 99.9996% free from defects.
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