GETTING TO BEST PRACTICES – ISSUE NO. 22

In the healthcare arena the term "Best Practice" is used to help define a way of doing a specific process, within that medical facility, the "best way possible" after a complete review of the present practices. One of the articles last week dealt with "Six Sigma", one of the quality movements that can help any organization not only boost productivity and profit, but, help them understand their process and get to "Best Practice". Being from Detroit, quality is always an issue, in fact, one of my favorite quotes is from Henry Ford "Quality is doing the job right when nobody is looking". How true is that statement? Regardless of the method used to get to the "Best Practice" (Focus PDCA, Six Sigma Zero defects,..) each medical facility needs to make sure there is buy in from top to bottom. W. Edward Deming (the father of quality improvement) once said "Quality is everyone's responsibility". Once that buy in takes place, process will improve and then the facility can move closer to "Best Practices". Getting to a "Best Practice" is hard work but once achieved you can use that success to achieve other success within your department or facility.