Performance of Emergency Department: Case study

Emergency departments (EDs) face problems with crowding, delays, cost containment, and patient safety. To address these and other problems, EDs increasingly implement the Lean Six - Sigma approach. This approach has become a business model and a symbol of excellence, with the goal of eliminating waste and reducing defects and variations within an organization's processes. In this approach Lean is focused mainly on waste elimination, using simple and visual techniques whenever possible, and Six Sigma is focused on control and processes variability reduction, using statistical tools for this purpose. The present paper proposes a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) model supported by the DMAIC cycle with an application to the case of Habib Bourguiba's Hospital ED.