Creating Standards in a Sea of Variability

As health systems continue to expand and grow, the need to implement standard work to promote safe practices increases. However, it is not simple creating a standard when there is a large variation in practices, service lines and staff in each facility. Piedmont Healthcare identified multiple opportunities to create safer standards around the surgical count process in the OR. One of the most important tools to facilitate counting is the OR count board/white board. Through Gemba walks and current state analysis it was determined that every hospital in the system had different count board layouts and content. This presentation looks at how Piedmont Healthcare, a 19-hospital system, took an innovative approach to standardize OR count boards across the health system. 

Recognizing different approaches to creating standard work.

Designing and organizing standard work with multidisciplinary teams.

Authors

Nandita Jacob holds an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology Engineering from VIT University in India and a Master of Public Health degree with a focus on Health Management and Policy from Emory University, Atlanta. With six years of experience in healthcare quality and process improvement at Piedmont Healthcare, Nandita is passionate about enhancing health systems. She has a particular interest in improvement projects related to women's services and surgical safety, striving to make a positive impact in these critical areas

Calvin Johnson holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Mercer University and a graduate degree in Engineering Management from Eastern Michigan University. Calvin also has a certification as a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma.  Calvin has over 8 years of healthcare process improvement experience with different healthcare systems including Roper St. Francis Healthcare, Wellstar Healthcare, and Piedmont Healthcare. Prior to that, Calvin worked in Manufacturing for 10 years doing process improvement. Calvin’s career focus has been to mentor and coach cross functional teams on lean and six sigma while providing operational improvement to improve the lives of customers and patients.