Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare Quality Training Course

Course overview

Healthcare quality teams are expected to improve patient flow, safety, experience and cost at the same time, often while working with incomplete data and competing clinical priorities. Delays in discharge, missed observations, medication reconciliation defects, appointment backlogs and avoidable readmissions rarely have a single cause. This course equips participants to investigate these problems as processes: define the patient-facing defect, establish a credible baseline, identify variation and waste, test changes safely, and demonstrate whether performance has improved.

Participants work through the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC method in a healthcare setting: Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control. They learn to write problem and project charters; map end-to-end patient pathways using SIPOC and value stream maps; translate quality concerns into operational measures; develop data collection plans; use run charts, Pareto charts, histograms and basic statistical tests; conduct root-cause analysis; and prioritise countermeasures with FMEA and impact-effort matrices. The course also addresses clinical engagement, patient safety considerations and the distinction between common-cause and special-cause variation.

Teaching combines instructor-led explanation with healthcare cases, spreadsheet-based analysis and facilitated project workshops. Participants apply the methods to a realistic scenario such as reducing emergency department-to-ward transfer time or eliminating defects in a medicines process. They leave with a documented DMAIC project pack containing a charter, stakeholder analysis, current-state process map, measurement plan, baseline dashboard, root-cause analysis, improvement experiment and control plan that can be adapted for use in their own service.

The programme is designed for healthcare professionals who already contribute to quality improvement, operational performance or patient safety work and now need a disciplined, evidence-based improvement method. It is equally valuable to managers approving improvement projects because it creates a common structure for selecting initiatives, assigning ownership and tracking verified benefits.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define a healthcare improvement project using a problem statement, aim statement, scope, benefits hypothesis and project charter
• Map a patient pathway with SIPOC, swimlane process mapping and value stream mapping to identify hand-offs, delays and non-value-adding activity
• Develop an operational definition and data collection plan for safety, quality, delivery, cost and patient-experience measures
• Calculate baseline performance using descriptive statistics, run charts, Pareto analysis and process capability measures
• Analyse process variation using cause-and-effect diagrams, five whys, stratification and basic hypothesis testing
• Prioritise improvement actions using FMEA, risk priority numbers and impact-effort analysis
• Design and evaluate PDSA tests that introduce workflow changes without compromising patient safety
• Create a healthcare process control plan with ownership, visual measures, escalation thresholds and audit routines

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Healthcare Quality Managers — who need a repeatable method for converting quality priorities into measurable improvement projects
• Clinical Governance Leads — who investigate safety and compliance concerns and must evidence sustainable corrective action
• Patient Safety Managers — who need to distinguish process failure patterns from isolated incidents
• Service and Operations Managers — who are accountable for patient flow, waiting times, capacity and reliable hand-offs
• Senior Nurses and Allied Health Professionals — who lead ward or pathway improvements while protecting clinical standards
• Healthcare Data and Improvement Analysts — who support teams with measurement plans, baseline analysis and performance reporting

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience of a healthcare service, clinical pathway, quality initiative or operational process and be comfortable discussing measures such as waiting time, error rate, compliance rate and patient outcome. Familiarity with basic Excel tasks, including entering data, sorting, filtering and creating simple charts, is assumed. Participants should also understand their organisation's local approach to incident reporting, clinical governance and information confidentiality. Prior Lean Six Sigma certification, advanced mathematics, statistical programming and previous use of Minitab are not required; statistical concepts are taught through healthcare examples and guided exercises.

Training methodology

The five-day programme alternates concise instructor-led teaching with applied healthcare improvement work. Participants analyse a realistic patient-flow or clinical-process case using Excel and Minitab, then build each DMAIC artefact as the method is introduced. Small groups map pathways, define measures, review sample data, test root-cause hypotheses, complete an FMEA and design PDSA cycles. Facilitated discussions examine clinical engagement, data quality and patient-safety constraints. On the final day, each participant develops an application plan for a workplace project and receives structured peer and instructor feedback.

Course outline

Day 1: Define healthcare quality problems

• Lean Six Sigma principles in healthcare quality improvement
• DMAIC phases and healthcare project governance
• Voice of the patient, family and clinical customer
• Critical-to-quality requirements and operational definitions
• Problem statements, aim statements and SMART targets
• Project charter scope, assumptions, benefits and constraints
• SIPOC analysis for clinical and administrative pathways

Workshop: Participants create a project charter and SIPOC for a case involving delayed emergency department-to-ward transfers.

Day 2: Measure pathways and establish baselines

• Swimlane process mapping across clinical hand-offs
• Value stream mapping and identification of waiting waste
• Measure selection for safety, quality, delivery, cost and experience
• Numerator, denominator and operational definition design
• Data collection plans, sampling and data-quality checks
• Descriptive statistics for healthcare process measures
• Run charts and baseline performance dashboards

Workshop: Participants map the current-state transfer pathway and produce a measurement plan and baseline run chart from case data.

Day 3: Analyse variation and root causes

• Common-cause and special-cause variation in care processes
• Pareto charts for defect and delay prioritisation
• Histograms, box plots and stratified data analysis
• Cause-and-effect diagrams for multidisciplinary processes
• Five whys and cause validation techniques
• Basic hypothesis testing for improvement questions
• Process capability concepts for time and defect measures

Workshop: Participants analyse transfer-delay data, build a Pareto chart and fishbone diagram, and identify validated root-cause hypotheses.

Day 4: Improve safely and manage implementation risk

• Generating countermeasures from verified root causes
• Lean workplace methods including 5S and visual management
• Standard work and error-proofing in healthcare workflows
• Impact-effort matrices and solution prioritisation
• Failure mode and effects analysis for proposed changes
• PDSA cycles and small-scale testing protocols
• Stakeholder engagement and resistance management

Workshop: Participants complete an FMEA and PDSA test plan for a redesigned transfer or medication-reconciliation workflow.

Day 5: Control gains and lead improvement projects

• Control plans, process ownership and review cadence
• Visual performance boards and tiered escalation
• Statistical process control chart selection
• Response plans for performance deterioration
• Auditing standard work and sustaining adoption
• Benefits realisation and project close-out reporting
• DMAIC storyboard presentation for leadership review

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a complete DMAIC project pack, including control plan and 90-day workplace application plan.

Tools & standards covered

Minitab Statistical Software, Microsoft Excel, IHI Model for Improvement, ISO 7101:2023 Healthcare organization management

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions