Application effect of Six Sigma management on reducing the delay of continuous operations in day surgery

Objective To use Six Sigma management to administrate the procedure when ambulatory surgery patients enter into the operating room, so as to reduce surgery interval and improve utilization rate of the operating table. Methods We included 514 patients with day surgery from October 2016 to April 2017 through the Hospital Information System (HIS) of Ningbo First Hospital. Then we adapted the 5 methods of Six Sigma management including definition, measurement, analysis, improvement, control to analyze the data. By observing the delay rate of operation, the reason of delay in operation was analyzed, and the main problems of each time node were refined and improved. A total of 687 patients admitted from May to October 2017 were selected as the post intervention group and the results were evaluated. Results After the implementation of Six Sigma management, we found that the delay rate of ambulatory surgery was decreased from 12.26% to 1.16%, the difference was statistically significant (χ2=65.039, P<0.01) . Conclusions The application of Six Sigma management in day surgery can effectively reduce the delay of day surgery, decrease surgery interval and improve the utilization rate of the operation. Key words: Nursing administration research; Six Sigma; Day surgery; Continuous operations