Abstract:
Improvement journey in Healthcare for Improved Patient Care & Safety
by Jonathon, Adel, Training, Coaching, & Facilitation
Date: Jan. 22, 2026
Time: 12 to 1:00 PM EST
REGISTRATION: NOT REQUIRED, RUS: 0.1 CERTIFICATE WILL BE PROVIDED
Via Zoom ID: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7034877252 Meeting id 7034877252 For information/questions: Contact jayp@qpsinc.com
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is an effective way to identify and prioritize factors that can generate risk. FMEA is used in both the design and in the improvement of products and processes. The FMEA process entails developing a matrix of ways the design or process could go wrong, prioritizing which outcomes present the greatest risks, and developing measures to prevent, to contain and control, or to mitigate those risks. Prioritization ensues from the Risk Priority Number (RPN), which develops a semi-quantitative estimate of each risk element. Rank ordering the risk associated with each element then enables the team to identify said measures, with the impact of reducing overall risk. However, there can be situations where the entirety of the FMEA process exceeds the needs for the situation at hand, but where either an RPN or a modified RPN can add value to the team’s decision making.
This presentation will review two such instances. In the first, a hospital used traditional RPNs associated with how various clerical errors in writing prescriptions could impart risk of unwanted outcomes to patients. In this case it was purely a means to estimate before-and-after degrees of overall risk to patient welfare. The analysis revealed that the process improvements
imparted an overall 75% reduction in patient risk. The other was when the rating scales were modified to create a “quasi-RPN” scale, which in turn was used to assign medical supply inventory to one of three locations: near the patient bedside, down the hall at the nurse server, or in the 24-hour central storage. Like the Rx errors, the scale was focused on minimizing adverse patient outcomes. In this case, the analysis enabled the hospital to carry 50% less inventory of supplies, without experiencing a single supply outage over the trial period.
Jonathon Lee Andell has been a quality professional since 1987, one of the world’s first certified Six Sigma Black Belts since 1992, a consultant since 1998, and a Fellow of the American Society for Quality since 2008. He was a Lead Examiner for Arizona’s Baldrige-based Quality Awards.
His technical expertise encompasses manufacturing, transactional, and design applications of Lean Six Sigma. His easy-going style yet rigorous approach makes Lean Six Sigma methodologies readily accessible to senior executives, technical specialists, and
hourly workers alike. He is equally at home on the shop floor, in the “C” suite, at a computer, on a coaching call, and in front of a class.
Among Jonathon’s global clients are leading firms in such diverse industries as: aerospace, automotive, construction, design,
electronics, energy, food, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, service, software, and telecommunications. He has published and presented extensively.