Program

Physician Assistant M.S.

Year Approved

2015

First Advisor

Hopper, Don

Abstract

In response to demands on healthcare, systems have looked to refine current processes to use time, materials, and finances more efficiently. Lean/Six Sigma (L/SS) is a model that has been used to improve procedural efficiency in various settings. The purpose of this study was to implement L/SS into an outpatient private practice setting and to evaluate the effect on efficiency as measured in the length of individual patient visits who presented to that clinic for routine re-evaluation. In this study, the amount of time between a patient’s entrance and exit from the clinic was documented for 878 patients before implementation of L/SS and for 319 patients after an 18 month implementation period. Statistical analysis of the variance was completed using ANOVA and found to have both a statistically significant (P <.05) and clinically significant change (eight minutes) in visit time between the two groups.

Degree Name

Masters of Science in Physician Assistant

Document Type

Masterʼs thesis

Terms of Use and License Information

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

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