Lessons from Sweden’s first large-scale implementation of Six Sigma in healthcare
Journal article, 2010

The Skaraborg Hospital Group (SkaS) has implemented a variety of quality management initiatives in the last 20 years in accordance with its strategy of excelling at quality development to fulfill the needs and expectations of its patients. One such initiative is Six Sigma, which has contributed to more than 40 completed improvement projects. Using an action research approach, this article describes the lessons that were learned from the first 22 Six Sigma projects, completed between 2006 and 2008 and having a success rate of 75%. We further describe how these insights have contributed to other ongoing quality improvement activities at SkaS. In particular, the paper presents some key points not earlier described in other Six Sigma healthcare applications.

Healthcare - Learning - Process Management - Six Sigma - Improvement

Author

Svante Lifvergren

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Quality Sciences

Ida Gremyr

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Quality Sciences

Andreas Hellström

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Quality Sciences

Alexander Chakhunashvili

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Quality Sciences

Bo Bergman

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Quality Sciences

Operations Management Research

1936-9735 (ISSN) 1936-9743 (eISSN)

Vol. 3 3-4 117-128

Subject Categories

Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics

Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy

Public Administration Studies

DOI

10.1007/s12063-010-0038-y

More information

Created

10/8/2017