The Eastern Shore Hospital has encountered a problem in bed turn around time (i.e.. the time taken to discharge a patient from a bed and admit a new patient). This, in turn, has caused delays in the hospital operating room, resulting in physician and patient dissatisfaction. The hospital initiated a Six Sigma project to resolve the problem, initially focusing on

The Eastern Shore Hospital has encountered a problem in bed turn around time (i.e.. the time taken to discharge a patient from a bed and admit a new patient). This, in turn, has caused delays in the hospital operating room, resulting in physician and patient dissatisfaction. The hospital initiated a Six Sigma project to resolve the problem, initially focusing on one surgical nursing unit, which had almost 3000 patients in one year. The Six Sigma DMAIC process employed by the project team included the following project activities, activity times, and precedence relationships.