Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 16, 2025
Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Scientific Management for Healthcare Quality Improvement: The Practice of Six Sigma DMAIC in Prescription Pre-Review
Li Zhou1, Fangyun Zhao1, Yanhua Li1
1Department of Pharmacy, The Affiliated Yan'an Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.
Background:
Prescription pre-review (PPR) is an important part of hospital pharmacy management, which aims to ensure the rationality, safety and effectiveness of prescriptions. However, due to the extensive and specialised nature of prescription review work, coupled with the high work intensity in hospitals, prescription errors occur from time to time, affecting the quality of medical care and patient safety.
Objective:
Six Sigma DMAIC management method, as a systematic approach to improve service quality by reducing process variation and defects, was applied for the first time in the rectification practice of PPR work in our hospital. In this study, we investigated the practice of Six Sigma DMAIC methodology and its effectiveness in our hospital's PPR work.
Methods:
This study analyzes and compares the improvement of PPR from January to September 2023 after the implementation of Six Sigma DMAIC method with the same period in 2022 before the implementation by defining the problem, measuring the current situation, analysing the causes, improving the process and controlling the effect. The improvement effectiveness was also reflected by the prescription compliance rate of key drugs such as key monitoring drugs, intravenous drugs, and antimicrobial drugs, as well as the clinical satisfaction survey.
Results:
The overall quality of PPR has been significantly improved compared with the previous period, and the error rate of important prescriptions, including the prescriptions of key monitoring drugs, intravenous drugs, and so on, has been significantly reduced, and the job satisfaction has been increased, so that patient safety and quality of medical care have been effectively guaranteed.
Conclusions:
The introduction of Six Sigma DMAIC management methodology provides a scientific improvement path for PPR work, and provides an effective reference and important guidance for further improvement of the quality of pharmacy services and pharmacy management work in the future.
More Related Videos
12:18A Machine Learning Approach to Design an Efficient Selective Screening of Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: January 11, 2020
06:55Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting Propensity Score using the Military Health System Data Repository and National Death Index
Published on: January 8, 2020
Related Concept Videos
01:30Health Information Technology and Healthcare Information System
Health Information Technology, commonly called HIT, integrates advanced information systems and technology in healthcare settings. Its primary functions include:
01:15Methods of Documentation VI: Case Management Model
For example, a patient with a chronic...
01:19Quality Assurance
01:05Quality Control
Quality control helps track data, visualize trends, and identify variations, making it easier to detect deviations that may affect the accuracy of an analysis. One way to do this is by generating a quality control chart, which...
01:26Methods Of Healthcare Delivery System
Managed Care System:
The managed care system is designed to control the cost while maintaining the quality of care. The patient's care from admission to discharge is planned by the primary care provider or the case manager, also known as the gatekeeper. In a managed care system, the number of care providers is...
01:11Purpose of Health Records I
Here's a breakdown of how health records serve these purposes: