Six Sigma Challenges In Healthcare

11. Six Sigma challenges:
Six Sigma is an important approach to quality improvement that can be used in the County to meet needs and expectations of patients as well as to improve profitability and cash flow. While the start-up costs alone of Six Sigma deployment are daunting, the challenges in actually implementing the Six Sigma discipline are perhaps even more formidable.
12. Technology change and its adoption:
With the technological evolution occurring more than ever before, it is important for the healthcare practices in the County to decide on where to invest. Buying equipment wouldn’t be the only cost incurred. Its training and personnel costs will also be adding up. The County must be prudent as well as serve the patients with all the

Transition to Electronic Health Records
The transition to electronic health records to comply with meaningful use is not cheap. The total cost for an in-office system or a cloud-based system is very high.
17. Challenges in providing patient-centered care
· Organizational level challenges include investments in leadership development and training in continuous quality improvement concepts and methods that will enable the hospital staff to make, measure, and manage change effectively.For a change to occur, evidence regarding specific interventions that work to improve patient-centered care must be documented and made available to managers and change leaders. To support the development of medical homes within primary care practices, the County would need to offer new incentives for primary care physicians.

18. Managing investment in a capital-constrained environment
Between frequently changing laws, expansion of healthcare access and increasing patient demands, hospitals need access to more financial resources to keep up. Furthermore, the pressure to cut costs while enhancing outcomes places restrictions on how much money hospitals can spend to improve patients’

As reimbursements are becoming tied to performance and patient outcomes, staff will be central to this success. The challenge of finding qualified staff is exacerbated by retaining the perceived talent, plus turnover rates for physicians are at an all-time high.
21. Managing Medicare and Medicaid payments
The management of Medicaid payments is one of the most recent and substantive challenges being faced by the hospitals. The fact that the government places caps on the reimbursements that Medicare and Medicaid patients can receive amplifies the recognition of uninsured and underinsured financial strain. The more Medicaid and Medicare clients a hospital sees, the less money it will take in. These economic challenges make it substantially difficult for hospitals to provide medical services to an aging populace who rely on Medicare and Medicaid to address their healthcare needs.
22. Shortage of healthcare