IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0261747.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Utilization of Lean & Six Sigma quality initiatives in Indian healthcare sector

Author

Listed:
  • Gaurav Suman
  • Deo Raj Prajapati

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the utilization of Lean & Six Sigma quality initiatives in healthcare sector in India. Methodology: The survey questionnaires were sent to 454 hospitals through registered postal in all the states of India. The survey questionnaire was designed to assess different quality initiatives; currently implemented in Indian hospitals, factors align with organization’s objectives, reasons for not implementing Lean & Six Sigma and contribution of Lean & Six Sigma projects in healthcare improvement projects etc. A separate section in the questionnaire provides the feedback on implementation of Lean & Six Sigma in various hospitals. The relationships between Lean & Six Sigma and healthcare performance have also been established in this paper. Findings: It is found that 15 Nos. of hospitals have implemented the Lean tools while 14 Nos. have implemented the Six Sigma tools out of 109 collected responses. This shows the utilization of Lean & Six Sigma in Indian healthcare sector. The ‘Lack of knowledge’ and ‘Availability of resources’ are the major reasons for not implementing Lean & Six Sigma. It is also observed that 22% running projects were related to Lean & Six Sigma out of various improvement projects running in various hospitals. Originality: There is lack of evidences of similar studies that determines the utilization of Lean & Six Sigma in Indian healthcare sector at the national level. This paper will provide important breakthrough to academicians and healthcare practitioners, who are involved in Lean & Six Sigma research. Social implications: The present study will create awareness among healthcare practitioners across India for utilization of quality tools that will provide direct benefits to the society.

Suggested Citation

  • Gaurav Suman & Deo Raj Prajapati, 2021. "Utilization of Lean & Six Sigma quality initiatives in Indian healthcare sector," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-20, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0261747
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261747
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261747&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0261747?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jiju Antony & Maneesh Kumar, 2012. "Lean and Six Sigma Methodologies in NHS Scotland: An Empirical Study and Directions for Future Research," Quality Innovation Prosperity, Technical University of Košice, Department of integrated management, vol. 16(2).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amrik Sohal & Tharaka Vass & Tristan Vasquez & Greg J. Bamber & Timothy Bartram & Pauline Stanton, 2022. "Success factors for lean six sigma projects in healthcare," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 215-240, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0261747. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.