title: Design for Six Sigma in healthcare: developing an employee influenza vaccination process.
abstract: Nonclinical healthcare processes are sometimes created on an ad hoc basis and hence over time may grow unnecessarily complex and difficult to assess, teach, improve, or transfer. Intentionally designing processes are more likely to yield an efficient and effective process. Originally developed in industry, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a method for planning new processes applicable to healthcare. Benefits from using DFSS include well-defined process steps and documentation that makes processes easier to teach, monitor, control, and transfer to other units. We describe the DFSS process and provide an example of its application to an employee influenza vaccination program at a New England hospital.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.
authors.forename: Selena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: Soren
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bisgaard
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Truesdell
authors.forename: Sharren
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zetterholm
mesh_terms: D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006282:Health Personnel; D006788:Hospitals, Voluntary / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009511:New England; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D018581:Technology Transfer