Fresh data from vendors may offer an interesting opportunity for a performance improvement project for labs.
A pilot program developed by QuidelOrtho saw the in vitro diagnostics manufacturer provide a bevy of Six Sigma testing data to some of its medical laboratory customers, including Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, based in New Brunswick, NJ.
“It’s a great opportunity for a performance improvement project,” says Gilles Attipoe, director of laboratory services at Saint Peter’s University Hospital.
Six Sigma is an approach that aims to eliminate or reduce errors in processes. It can apply to many business workflows, including those found in laboratories. Using continuous improvement tactics, the goal is to bring a process to a Six Sigma level—meaning 3.4 defects for every one million opportunities, according to the Six Sigma Daily website.1
Six Sigma steers performance improvement project for lab
As detailed in Lab Manager’s sibling brand, Today’s Clinical Lab, Saint Peter’s received months’ worth of Six Sigma data about diagnostic tests from QuidelOrtho.2 The pilot program centered on whether Six Sigma could influence a lab to change its quality control practices, says Johanna Miller, MS, global product manager and data scientist at QuidelOrtho.
Based on the information provided, Saint Peter’s was able to identify struggling test performance and take action to improve it, Attipoe notes.
As a result, the lab was able to increase tests that achieved Six Sigma from 58 percent to 65 percent, he adds.
Efficient testing improves quality in the lab
The Six Sigma increases noted by Saint Peter’s illustrate the type of success that any lab should track through performance improvement projects.
“My laboratory does two performance improvement projects a year,” Attipoe says. “This Six Sigma data is a good end-of-the-year performance improvement project topic in which I can show … how we improved quality in the laboratory.”
There are also benefits from a customer service perspective—both to internal customers (in Saint Peter’s case, physicians) and external customers (patients).
“It applies from a patient perspective,” Attipoe adds. “If a doctor were to call us questioning the accuracy of our results, [Six Sigma is] one of the tools that we can use to show how well our assays perform. It helps us have more faith and more confidence that the results we’re releasing are true and accurate.”
‘They had the data to back it up’
The pilot program allowed QuidelOrtho to present Six Sigma data to labs and find out if it was useful.
Lab managers involved in the pilot told the company that the Six Sigma metrics helped take their gut instinct out of quality control, Miller says.
“It was easier to convince their staff to make improvements because they had the data to back it up,” she adds. “It was easier to have conversations with their physicians. It was easier to look at their lab from a high level and examine where they needed to focus their energy. They said it was a time savings.”
Such time savings often form the core of a performance improvement project for labs. Laboratory managers interested in mirroring Saint Peter’s approach may want to ask their vendor representatives about what data is available to review, Six Sigma or otherwise.
Want more help with pushing improvement in the lab? Check out Lab Manager Academy’s Lab Management Quality Certificate program.
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