Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Critical Access Hospital Uses Lean Six Sigma to Improve Anesthesia's Postoperative Note Completion by 95%

The goal was to reduce anesthesia's postoperative evaluation errors to less than 10 percent of all cases using Lean Six Sigma methodologies. Errors included inpatient evaluations that were not signed, dated, timed or completed within 24 hours of surgery end time. Key improvements included a process design that created consistency and accountability for the completion of the postoperative anesthesia evaluation within 24 hours of surgery end time, and the design of an audit log for the on-call anesthetist to complete on previous days' cases to capture fall outs within the 24 hour time period. With these improvements, anesthesia inpatient postoperative documentation improved by 95 percent from the initial pre-intervention average of 39 percent compliant to the post-intervention average of 97 percent compliant.

This case study is part of the Illinois Health and Hospital Association's annual Quality Excellence Achievement Awards. Each year, IHA recognizes and celebrates the achievements of Illinois hospitals and health systems in continually improving and transforming health care in the state. These organizations are improving health by striving to achieve the Triple Aim—improving the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction), improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of health care—and the Institute of Medicine’s six aims for improvement—safe, effective, patient centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. To learn more, visit https://www.ihaqualityawards.org/javascript-ui/IHAQualityAward/