Emergency Department Bottleneck Proposal

Emergency Department Bottleneck Proposal Middletown Hospital is a 200-bed, not-for-profit-general hospital that has an emergency department with 20 emergency beds. The emergency department handles on an average 100 patients per day. The hospital’s CEO has authorized the Six Sigma Team (SST) to address complaints received from patients seeking treatment between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. The complaints are centered on waiting times and poor service. During this time the data indicates that approximately 70% of the department’s admissions occur (University of Phoenix, 2009, Course Syllabus). To address these complaints and improve performance of the emergency department the Six Sigma Team must understand process improvement proposals. The process must identify the reason of the bottleneck; identify the correct data collection method; the use of capacity planning; accurate analysis of the scheduling and controlling techniques; and identify a recommendation on staffing or alternative sources of care.
Process Improvement Proposals A process improvement proposal is a mechanism to define the opportunities needed to reduce the number of steps, interactions, decision points, reports, and the length of the defined practice (Langabeer, 2008). Three key areas need to be addressed when improving a current practice. According to Langabeer (2008), these areas include increasing capacity, reducing the use of resources, and reducing the amount of variation (p. 79). For example, if the emergency department is currently seeing patients at a rate of four per hour during normal business hours, and this rate drops to one per hour during the period listed a bottleneck will result. To address this issue the department needs to provide the resources necessary to avoid the problem.
However, when the reason for the bottleneck is known the correction must include steps to preserve resources. These steps must address reducing the cost per patient, removing excessive steps, and