Via Christi Health, the largest provider of healthcare in Kansas, operates a Center for Clinical Excellence that’s made up of a team of quality practitioners; all have had lean and Six Sigma training. I recently had the opportunity to talk with the team about the types of projects they’re working on.

Not only did I learn about the areas of patient care where they are targeting improvements, but also about one particular project the team completed to determine if process changes put into place in the hospital’s emergency department actually improved the patient experience.

I thought it was an interesting case study to share not only with practitioners working in healthcare, but with any quality professional who is looking to prove statistically that process changes are actually making a difference.

Like many healthcare providers, at Via Christi they sought to make their services as efficient and consistent as possible now that more and more patients need to be served by the healthcare system.

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