PDCA is one of the most commonly used tools for organizing the operations of an organization. It has gained importance in many different fields of work. The healthcare industry has made this approach an integral part of its management system. A healthcare facility can truly benefit through the PDCA approach.
The PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) was first presented by Walter Shewhart in 1929 and promoted by W. Edwards Deming in the 1950s as a flow graph for learning. Deming supported the use of PDCA as a persistent feedback loop to break down, measure, and recognize sources of variations from client requirements. This was to initiate corrective measures.
Plan
The planning stage includes evaluating a present procedure, or another procedure. Then it is about making sense of how it can be enhanced. In this stage it is essential to realize what sort of yields are necessary. Further plan is built up to settle the procedure. Usually it is simpler to design little changes during this period of the planning. With this, the goal can be effortlessly monitored. The outcome itself becomes more predictable this way.
Do
The do stage permits the plans from the past advancements to be brought into action. Little changes are usually tried. The information is gathered to take a deeper look at how powerful the changes may prove to be.
Check
In the check stage, the information and results accumulated from the do stage are assessed. This information is contrasted with the normal results to observe any significant differences. The testing procedure is likewise assessed to check if there were any progressions from the first test. This first test was made in the planning stage. The information is placed in a diagram, this makes it easy to observe any perceivable patterns in the PDCA cycle. This is if the PDCA is conducted repeatedly for certain number of times. This way, the changes that work well in comparison to the others can be observed. Also, the said changes can be further enhanced too.
Act
The check stage demonstrates that the plan stage, which was actualized in do stage is a change to the earlier standard (benchmark). At this point it turns into the new standard (pattern). It is at this time that the organization should go ahead with the new guidelines, which are to be acted upon. Sometimes, the check stage shows that the plan stage which was executed in do stage isn't a change. At that point the current standard (gauge) will persist. In either case, if the check stage demonstrated something other than what was expected, some more investigation is needed. Potential future PDCA cycles are recommended.
Plan
· I want to test a procedure of collecting patient satisfaction survey.
· The test must produce no less than 25 finished surveys for each week during the tenure.
Steps to be executed:
· The surveys shall be displayed at the checkout desk.
· The checkout personnel will urge the patient to take the survey. They will be requested to fill the survey at home and mail it back.
· This will be attempted for a duration of 2 weeks.
Do
What did you see?
· The checkout personnel effectively worked on the request of the survey into the checkout process.
· We saw that the patient had different papers to handle at the time.
· Per checkout personnel, only around 30% patients took the survey.
Check
What is learnt? Was the measurement objective met?
· We just had 3 surveys returned towards the finish of the 2 week period, the process did not work as per expectations.
Act
What did you understand from this cycle?
· A few patients did not want to be pestered at this point of the visit. They wanted to check out, not take a survey.
· Once the patient leaves the building, he/she will probably not take the survey.
· They have to be approached during another point in their visit to the hospital. This could be at a point where they are in the waiting area, and they have nothing much to do.