The following Six Sigma case study demonstrates how a practical and profitable change brings about the confidence to alter age-old processes. Medical transcription is an area which requires accuracy and fast delivery of the transcribed dictations. Lean Six Sigma in medical transcription could change the current scenario for Xtel Technologies and usher faster delivery to manage the heavy incoming.
Once the team was onboard and was ready to take up the project, documentation of the problem definition was started. The 20 odd problems were affinized, and customer focus was drawn out as a priority. Two CTQs were also defined which were quality and timeliness.
The Six Sigma case study formed a cross functional team to address practice A, which was the cause of the largest incoming volume. The customer voiced out that they expect the recordings received between 7:30 a.m. on day 1 (Batch 1) and 7:30 a.m. on Day 2 (Batch 2) must be sent out by 5:30 p.m. on day 2. Clearly the 1st batch had 34 hours whereas the 2nd Batch had just 10 hours for completion.
When measured, Lean Six Sigma in medical transcription showed a lot of variance and a delay of 89 minutes from the expected time. Out of the many causes analyzed, batching came up as a crucial insight. It was seen that the work for both Batch 1 and Batch 2 started only at 8:00 am on day 2. When studied it was seen, that the difference in the time zones between US and India lead to a steady stream of data from 7:30 pm of the previous day till 7:30 am the next day, and there was a peak between midnight and 2:00am IST.
Since the data came from 7:30pm onwards, the batching could start from 8:00pm if there were 2 teams working in the night shift and 1 in the morning shift. This could significantly improve the batch to flow ratio, and could improve the existing system.
The Six Sigma case study decided to put the concept into practice, and when significant differences were realized, the team decided to extend it into a regular operation. Once the regular operations proceeded it helped the system handle a 22% higher load, and a 33% higher peak load. The dispatch time was 139 minutes earlier than expected.
Lean Six Sigma in medical transcription brought about a noteworthy change to the existing system. The process was monitored and later documented for further training and sustained growth.
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