Use of Six Sigma to improve pharmacist dispensing errors at an outpatient clinic

Hospital pharmacists have been challenged to face the paradigm shift in their model of services in the 21st century in Taiwan. Patients are increasingly concerned about drug safety and medication errors. Because of the financial crisis of our national insurance bureau, pharmacists are required to care for more patients, use fewer resources, and work faster, better, and more efficiently than ever before while striving to enhance customer satisfaction and quality of care. Under these circumstances, patient safety needs to be a priority of pharmacists. According to a preliminary report on medication error announced by the nonofficial medication error reporting system, pharmacist dispensing error ranked second in the list of errors in Taiwan. In our drive to improve quality, reduce costs, and enhance financial performance, our department has tried the traditional quality-improvement strategy with varying degrees of success. We wanted to achieve a breakthrough result, hence we implemented Six-Sigma methodology. This program is the catalyst needed to combine quality, cost, and patient safety. This article describes our experience using Six-Sigma methodology to reduce dispensing error in our pharmacy department.