Remember this before trying to implement Six Sigma

The following are the key steps and questions that you should consider before deciding whether or not a Six Sigma is well suited for your physician practice or healthcare entity:

1. Assess your market opportunity

Understanding your competitive landscape is the first step in the determination. Six Sigma excels where the factors of competitive pressure and business complexity are high.

2. Assess your leadership

Senior leadership buy-in is critical for continuous improvement. They must be focused and committed to achieving meaningful long-term oals. Effective leaders engrain that view into their business culture, engaging their entire workforce to participate. Forming a separate Six Sigma quality assurance or quality control department that is not strategically integrated with business priorities will certainly fail.

3. Assess your culture

Once you’ve ascertained that leadership is committed to long-term change, you must question whether your organization is stagnant or complacent with maintaining the status quo. Are your processes and workflow paper-driven and dependent upon manual steps? Six Sigma drives a focus to remove “non-value added” and redundant activities in an effort to streamline and create more efficient processes. It provides proactive management tools, skill sets and structure relating to techniques that eliminate the cause of problems.

4. Execute your plan

It is important to fully understand and embrace the long-term philosophy ofyour plan and set realistic, quantifiable and obtainable goals. Concentrate on the cultural aspects of redefining your business. Be committed to your long-term goals and concentrate on driving results.

Six Sigma is not a “quick fix answer” to your problems. It is a proven project management discipline and data analysis science that, if deployed correctly, can energize your organization. But it requires unequivocal commitment from the leadership team, as well as a real desire for long-term continuous

About the Author

Reed Tinsley CPA

This article is written by Reed Tinsley, a Houston, TX-based CPA with over 30 years of experience advising physicians and medical practices across Texas and the United States. Reed holds certifications as a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA), Certified Healthcare Business Consultant (CHBC), and Certified Financial Planner (CFP), specializing exclusively in the healthcare sector. He is a published author, nationally recognized speaker, and trusted advisor to physicians on accounting & tax, practice management, and financial planning. Schedule a Free Consultation.