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Medical Care and Six Sigma
Posted by
Neurosail
,
24 July 2008
·
872 views
Blog: seven
Word count: 888
Title: Medical Care and Six Sigma
Sub-title: The High Cost of Living
Medical Care and Six Sigma
Just looking at my paystub, I notice that Medicare was one-hour pay ($11.00). Social Security was four and a half hours and my medical, dental, and vision care added up to another hour's pay. That is a total of about one day's pay for medical and social expenses. My Federal and State income tax total about two days pay. That leaves me with two days and overtime to pay the rent, truck, insurance, cable, visa, membership dues, etc. per week. No wonder I'm over worked and under paid! "It's only gonna' get worse before it can gonna' gets' better!" to quote my mom. Can it get better? "There should be a law that says that social, medical, and income tax should never go beyond one day's pay for us por' folks!" Like my mom says. She is on Social Security Rail Road income, which is different from regular Social Security, but one third of her money goes to taxes. There should be another law that says that fixed income retirees should not pay income or medical taxes. They have been taxed to death for long enough. So where did those useless overpaid politicians, who never worked a day in their life and was born with a silver spoon in their mouth, I hope they choke on it, do with our money?
Ever worked in a nursing home? Ever noticed the little orange or yellow sticker on the medical charts of some patients? Hmm… Do you know what that is for? If you ask a nurse, she may brush it off saying that it doesn't mean anything, but what it really means is that Medicaid has issue a "Do Not Resuscitate", ie, the government won't pay for any assistance if the patient has a heart attack or stroke just let them die. Do you want that sticker on your or your family's chart? The patient has out lived their share of Medicaid funds.
The problem is only getting worse. The "Center for Retirement Research" at Boston College that: "Under reasonable assumptions of future growth rates, SMI [Supplementary Medical Insurance] premiums and cost sharing will eventually represent an unaffordable share of retirement income."
Change in the system is in dire need. Why does the U.S. have one of the worse medical assistant programs in the world? Why is there so much government waste? The answer may be mismanagement of funds, no tort limits, neglect, and even poor training of employees in the hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices. The "National Academies' Institute of Medicine" released a "study estimates that hospitals cause an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 death per year, making health care the eight leading cause of death in the United States."
However, reform is coming. In "Quality Digest" magazine (June 2008) is an article about "Statistical Process Control for Health Care." Jay Arthur states that; "SPC can monitor the health of clinical and operational performance using control charts and histograms." What is that, you might say?
Six Sigma is, according to "Six Sigma Demystified" a book by Paul Keller, is "DMAIC (pronounced Dah-May-Ick), an acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control." This discipline ensures that Six Sigma projects are clearly defined and implemented and prevents the reoccurrence of issues." It is a process of using statistical data to improve the quality of a product or service. By using data, which is accumulative information, and using charts, managers can asset the quality and cost of a service or goods. A one sigma of 1 million parts is only 30.9 % of good parts; a four sigma is 99.4%, and a six sigma is 99.99966% good parts for 1 million parts.
Jay Arthur states in his article: "Most of the data I've see during the last decade show that health care continues to hover around a four-sigma performance level (about 1% error rate). To achieve five or six sigma will require SPC and a commitment to following the protocols that prevent mortality and other complications." Hospitals need to rise from a four-sigma to a six-sigma level. A four-sigma level might be good enough in a plastics company where they can recycle the bad parts, however, in a hospital people lives are at stake, more must be done to raise the level to six-sigma or better. This would also reduce the cost of healthcare because of better service to the patients, with less errs, less misuse of unnecessary tests, and even the "wrong patient, or wrong side operations" that sometimes accrue. You don't want to be the patient that they did the wrong operation on or even accidentally give you the wrong blood, or drugs, and other mistakes that drive up healthcare costs.
If the government wants to be in the healthcare business, then it needs to learn how to operate that business. Allowing poor management and supervision of how to run the business of healthcare will cost this nation more than it can afford. Longevity Dividend would help reduce waste and provide a better system by doing research for an enhanced lifestyle in the later years of life. Healthier people would reduce the overall healthcare cost to Medicare and Medicaid. People would live longer and enjoy the golden years by being more active, less sick and in better shape than what the elderly enjoys today.
Word count: 888
Title: Medical Care and Six Sigma
Sub-title: The High Cost of Living
Medical Care and Six Sigma
Just looking at my paystub, I notice that Medicare was one-hour pay ($11.00). Social Security was four and a half hours and my medical, dental, and vision care added up to another hour's pay. That is a total of about one day's pay for medical and social expenses. My Federal and State income tax total about two days pay. That leaves me with two days and overtime to pay the rent, truck, insurance, cable, visa, membership dues, etc. per week. No wonder I'm over worked and under paid! "It's only gonna' get worse before it can gonna' gets' better!" to quote my mom. Can it get better? "There should be a law that says that social, medical, and income tax should never go beyond one day's pay for us por' folks!" Like my mom says. She is on Social Security Rail Road income, which is different from regular Social Security, but one third of her money goes to taxes. There should be another law that says that fixed income retirees should not pay income or medical taxes. They have been taxed to death for long enough. So where did those useless overpaid politicians, who never worked a day in their life and was born with a silver spoon in their mouth, I hope they choke on it, do with our money?
Ever worked in a nursing home? Ever noticed the little orange or yellow sticker on the medical charts of some patients? Hmm… Do you know what that is for? If you ask a nurse, she may brush it off saying that it doesn't mean anything, but what it really means is that Medicaid has issue a "Do Not Resuscitate", ie, the government won't pay for any assistance if the patient has a heart attack or stroke just let them die. Do you want that sticker on your or your family's chart? The patient has out lived their share of Medicaid funds.
The problem is only getting worse. The "Center for Retirement Research" at Boston College that: "Under reasonable assumptions of future growth rates, SMI [Supplementary Medical Insurance] premiums and cost sharing will eventually represent an unaffordable share of retirement income."
Change in the system is in dire need. Why does the U.S. have one of the worse medical assistant programs in the world? Why is there so much government waste? The answer may be mismanagement of funds, no tort limits, neglect, and even poor training of employees in the hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices. The "National Academies' Institute of Medicine" released a "study estimates that hospitals cause an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 death per year, making health care the eight leading cause of death in the United States."
However, reform is coming. In "Quality Digest" magazine (June 2008) is an article about "Statistical Process Control for Health Care." Jay Arthur states that; "SPC can monitor the health of clinical and operational performance using control charts and histograms." What is that, you might say?
Six Sigma is, according to "Six Sigma Demystified" a book by Paul Keller, is "DMAIC (pronounced Dah-May-Ick), an acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control." This discipline ensures that Six Sigma projects are clearly defined and implemented and prevents the reoccurrence of issues." It is a process of using statistical data to improve the quality of a product or service. By using data, which is accumulative information, and using charts, managers can asset the quality and cost of a service or goods. A one sigma of 1 million parts is only 30.9 % of good parts; a four sigma is 99.4%, and a six sigma is 99.99966% good parts for 1 million parts.
Jay Arthur states in his article: "Most of the data I've see during the last decade show that health care continues to hover around a four-sigma performance level (about 1% error rate). To achieve five or six sigma will require SPC and a commitment to following the protocols that prevent mortality and other complications." Hospitals need to rise from a four-sigma to a six-sigma level. A four-sigma level might be good enough in a plastics company where they can recycle the bad parts, however, in a hospital people lives are at stake, more must be done to raise the level to six-sigma or better. This would also reduce the cost of healthcare because of better service to the patients, with less errs, less misuse of unnecessary tests, and even the "wrong patient, or wrong side operations" that sometimes accrue. You don't want to be the patient that they did the wrong operation on or even accidentally give you the wrong blood, or drugs, and other mistakes that drive up healthcare costs.
If the government wants to be in the healthcare business, then it needs to learn how to operate that business. Allowing poor management and supervision of how to run the business of healthcare will cost this nation more than it can afford. Longevity Dividend would help reduce waste and provide a better system by doing research for an enhanced lifestyle in the later years of life. Healthier people would reduce the overall healthcare cost to Medicare and Medicaid. People would live longer and enjoy the golden years by being more active, less sick and in better shape than what the elderly enjoys today.
