Wk 5, MHA 505: Root Cause Analysis

Gemba Walk

Christine Ledford

University of Phoenix

Doris Chimera

July 26, 2021

Gemba Walk

Hendrick Medical Center does well in giving quality healthcare services to all people at a reasonable cost. Hendrix has accelerated the adoption of innovative solutions that help improve the quality of services to their patients. Hendrick has 231 acute care beds that provide the patients with a variety of services. It is a non-profit that caters to community needs for quality healthcare. Hendrick Medical Center is the only accredited Heart Failure trauma center inside the 100-mile radius of Abilene, Texas ( Hafey, 2014).

Emergency Room Gemba Walk

I visited the emergency department of the hospital. The reason I visited this area is to see where the hospital handles the emergencies that arrive via walk-in and by ambulance. Emergency rooms are very important in a hospital and play an essential role in saving lives. The emergency room is one of the most important places in the hospital. This is where the patients are treated to ensure the safety of the people in the community.

Gemba Walk Goal

The goal of the Gemba walk was to understand the value streams of Hendrick Medical Center and identify the problems that are associated and make superficial comments. The purpose of the Gemba walk was to learn the philosophy of Hendrick Health management. It also gives the managers a chance to engage with the employees and gain knowledge about the work process in the organization. Additionally, it allows the managers to explore the opportunities that the organization may have for continuous improvement of Hendrick Health.

Observation

While walking around the workplace I observed that the employees of the organization were very organized. The staff performed medical processes according to the standards and the intended results were produced. The leaders were very sincere and showed respect to employees. Additionally, the staff were very collaborative and went above and beyond the needs of the patients (Mehrotra, 2017).

Opportunities for Improvement. I followed the value stream of the organization to identify the opportunities for improvement of Hendrick Medical Center. By keeping my focus on the process rather than the staff, I easily understood the collaborative processes. Hendrick Medical Center provides a compassionate and high-quality services to their patients. It has also a range of available nursing services which is an outstanding benefit to the patients. The nursing practice environment is conducive for the nurses to flourish. There was a confirmation from the nurses that there was professional satisfaction in Hendrick Health (Gesinger, 2017).

Short-term Opportunities. The first short-term opportunity would be to reduce lead time which means to reduce the time take to complete the task. This can be done by use of machines. Secondly, reduce total cost. The organization can balance the prices of their product and services against the operating cost. Lastly, advancement in technology. It can reduce ineffectiveness in the organization is the adoption of new technology in their operations. The opportunities that are available to Hendrix health center include the advancement of technology, there has production of innovative machines that could help improve the quality of services and also make work easier. The organization can also take advantage of there fact they have been in business for over 9 decades and there is no dominant competition to further expand to other nations. With the experience and the new technology, the organization can easily venture into new markets. The trend that the organization could take advantage of is the new technology. With the advancement of technology, there are many opportunities that Hendrix healthcare can tap into. This includes online payment methods. (Bremer, 2018). 

Long-term Opportunities . One long-term opportunity is that Hendrick Health does not have a dominant competitor. Therefore, the population in which the organization is located is increasing; hence the increase in demand. There is ample market for Hendrick Health having been in business for over nine decades.

References

Bremer, M. (2018). How to do a Gemba walk: Coaching Gemba walkers. Independently Published.

Gesinger, S. (2017). Gemba walks this way. The Fearless World of Professional Safety in the 21st Century, 44-53. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315178493-10

Hafey, R. B. (2014). Lean safety Gemba walks A methodology for workforce engagement and culture change. CRC Press.