Improving timeliness and efficiency in the referral process for safety net providers: application of the Lean Six Sigma methodology.
Designated primary care clinics largely serve low-income and uninsured patients who present a disproportionate number of chronic illnesses and face great difficulty in obtaining the medical care they need, particularly the access to specialty physicians. With limited capacity for providing specialty care, these primary care clinics generally refer patients to safety net hospitals' specialty ambulatory care clinics. A large public safety net health system successfully improved the effectiveness and efficiency of the specialty clinic referral process through application of Lean Six Sigma, an advanced process-improvement methodology and set of tools driven by statistics and engineering concepts.
Decision Sciences and Information Systems, College of Business Administration, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA. deckardg@fiu.edu
Gloria J
GJ
Deckard
Nancy
N
Borkowski
Deisell
D
Diaz
Carlos
C
Sanchez
Serge A
SA
Boisette
D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D011203:Poverty; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*