Motivators to Application of DMAIC in Patient Care Processes

Six Sigma comprises DMAIC which is a methodology that has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of Healthcare. This study aims to understand the motivators to apply DMAIC in process in the context of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma to be implemented in processes focused on direct patient care. The article covers literature on DMAIC from 1997 to October 2020. For such a purpose, a systematic literature review has been carried out based on empirical studies in Hospitals and Emergency units. A total of 21 articles were reviewed, and the topic Motivators were addressed in this article with the aim of performing DMAIC through Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma. Based on the analyzed articles, the most frequent motivator to implement Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma DMAIC in organizations lies in reducing process time (such as length of stay) and improving the quality of service. It was also noticed that DMAIC has been used in several health services, such as patient discharge and surgeries (femur surgeries, for instance. An application of DMAIC in 50 emergency care units (UPAs) corroborated the main motivators indicated in the literature.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Brazilian Ministry of Health, Fluminense Federal University and Euclides da Cunha Foundation. This Research is part of a “Lean Project in UPAs 24 h” that has been funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Health (TED 125/2019, number: 25000191682201908).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Milena Reis
  2. Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio das Ostras, Brazil Luis Viera, Laryssa Amaral, José Farias Filho & Robisom Calado
  3. Ministério da Saúde, DAHU-SAES-MS, Distrito Federal, Brazil Adriana Teixeira
  1. Milena Reis