Kaizen
TCHD Completed Impact Statement: Tazewell County Health Department (TCHD) followed a Kaizen QI process to decrease the time for completing the deposit and receipt process for fee revenue. The number of days from receipt to post decreased from 30 to 5, an 83% reduction. Additional improved outcomes resulted from the Kaizen process. |
KHI Completed Impact Statement: Kansas Health Institute (KHI) strengthened their ability to share information with clients by increasing the efficiency of its publication process and reducing staff stress associated with it. |
CHA In Progress Impact Statement: By using Kaizen, Cabarrus Health Alliance (CHA) in North Carolina reduced food establishment violations by 22% and further protected residents from foodborne illness. |
DCHS Completed Impact Statement: Staff at Deschutes County Health Services (DCHS) recognized that they had so many different programs in operation that it was difficult for staff to make all the appropriate referrals for clients. They did a QI project, and their improvement hypothesis targeted three areas: knowledge, workflow, and... |
LPHI In Progress Impact Statement: The Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI), a nonprofit organization dependent on grant funding, engaged in a Kaizen process to decrease the amount of time it takes to prepare a grant proposal. After a 5-day Kaizen event, a new process and job aid were developed, and labor time for proposal... |
FCHD Completed Impact Statement: Franklin County Health Department (FCHD), a small local health department (LHD) in Kentucky, needed to improve the completion and timeliness of restaurant inspections to meet regulatory requirements. By using the Kaizen process and involving leaders from the LHD, the QI project team identified root... |
CPH In Progress Impact Statement: Columbus Public Health (CPH), a local health department in Ohio, was bogged down by a slow, costly process to administer vaccines to children at schools. By using PDSA and a Kaizen event approach, CPH increased the timeliness and efficiency to document the immunization services and decreased its... |
Houston Health Department In Progress Impact Statement: Mobile food units (MFUs) in Houston, Texas, now experience a faster, more efficient inspection process thanks to a Kaizen event held by Houston Health Department. The average time to complete the physical inspection and administrative paperwork has decreased from 3 hours to 30 minutes. Moreover,... |
MDH Completed Impact Statement: For health department services that have a major impact on citizens, ensuring high client satisfaction is important to the public’s understanding and support for these services. Three state health departments teamed together to improve the timeliness of death data, using the Kaizen method for... |
RiverStone Health In Progress Impact Statement: Health Alert Network (HAN) messages provide vital public health information to the community’s health care providers, schools, churches, day care centers, and so on. The RiverStone Health team used a 5-day Kaizen event to improve the HAN process, create job keys, involve more staff, and decrease... |
Clackamas County Public Health Division Completed Impact Statement: This medium-size local health department improved and standardized the effectiveness of environmental health (EH) plan reviews for new restaurant establishments. The QI team used Kaizen and Lean Six Sigma methods and tools to successfully reduce the EH plan review approval time frame from 30 days... |
Clackamas County Public Health Division Completed Impact Statement: Clackamas County Public Health Division has improved its onboarding processes to ensure that occupational health requirements are met within 30 days after hiring new employees and annually thereafter to ensure that risk is low and that employees and clients are safe and healthy. |
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services In Progress Impact Statement: Recognizing the critical role of timely and accurate death data for local health departments (LHDs) to perform surveillance and make informed decisions, the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services used quality improvement to decrease the lag in posting identifiable death data from... |
Minnesota Department of Health Completed Impact Statement: The Minnesota Department of Health Birth Defects Monitoring and Analysis Program used a Kaizen event to streamline the process for identifying children with birth defects, decrease the median time from 49 to 37 days, and decrease the maximum time by 53%. Families may now be linked faster to... |
MDH Completed Impact Statement: The Kaizen event approach was selected to involve the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Public Health Laboratory (PHL) team in reducing the percentage of influenza tests taking longer than 6 days to verify and eliminate testing errors. Within 4 months, errors were eliminated and test time length... |
WCHD In Progress Impact Statement: The Whatcom County Health department found that language and cultural barriers were contributing to higher numbers of critical Food Code violations for the almost 18% of non-English and ESL food service operators in Level 3 establishments in the County. The department considered the food service... |
NC DPH In Progress Impact Statement: Review of timely and accurate evaluation data is crucial for health departments to provide effective interventions to improve the health of their communities. The Women’s Health branch of a state health department used several QI methods and tools—including a Kaizen event, multiple PDSA cycles and... |
North Carolina Division of Public Health Completed Impact Statement: NC Division of Public Health streamlined data collection and improved the quality of reportable data in their Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program resulting in greater use of these data to improve services to children and families. |
FCHD Completed Impact Statement: Early intervention has been shown to positively impact outcomes across developmental domains. The Fond du Lac County Health Department increased the number of children being screened for developmental delays from 5 to 9 per month, allowing more children to be appropriately connected with services... |
JCDHE Completed Impact Statement: Johnson County Department of Health and Environment used a kaizen event to improve the supply ordering process cycle time and increased the order placement and delivery accuracy for all programs in the department. The results included decrease in cycle time – total ordering process time per order... |
CCPHD Completed Impact Statement: Clackamas County, Oregon conducted a comprehensive Kaizen project to design and implement a customer feedback system for the entire public health division. The process and tools used for the project are well described and easy to adapt by other health departments. While Clackamas has not yet... |
CDPH Completed Impact Statement: Untreated chlamydia (CT) and gonorrhea (GC) can lead to serious health problems in men and women. In order to effectively track and treat these two sexually transmitted infections, CDC guidelines require that low-priority CT and GC reports be processed by health departments within 30 days of... |
OHA–Public Health Division Completed Impact Statement: Team uses creativity to positively engage staff which enabled measurable improvements to be made to a critical agency process directly impacting the public. After the event, processing time was reduced substantially to a rolling average of 12.5 business days from the previous average of 30 business... |
El Dorado County Health and Human Services Agency Completed Impact Statement: El Dorado County Health and Human Services Agency used a Kaizen event to improve customer satisfaction and reduce labor time in the County “request for information” process. The results of the project mean better and faster information to the incoming caller, so they can make more informed... |
DeKalb County Board of Health Completed Impact Statement: The DeKalb County Board of Health used a kaizen event to decrease the labor time and increase the accuracy of filing death certificate registrations. Improving the process resulted in labor savings, better cash flow and improved performance for customers in providing accurate and timely filing. The... |
DOH-Seminole Completed Impact Statement: DOH-Seminole County realized savings of $7764 for goods and services from price negotiations during the first quarter following a Kaizen event – almost double the goal set by the QI team. Other improvements in the requisition process included a 38% decrease in process time, in addition to... |
WCPH Completed Impact Statement: Washington County (OR) conducted a Kaizen Event to improve the volume of childcare facilities that used the LHD for their state required inspections. The agency implemented several new policies and protocols to standardize the entire inspection process. As a result, they anticipate a reduction in... |
TRDHD Completed Impact Statement: By streamlining their internal computer drive, creating an internal framework for its use/upkeep, and training staff on the efficient and effective use of the computer drive, the Three Rivers District Health Department has increased staff productivity. |
TCHD Completed Impact Statement: Kaizen events lend themselves to rapid improvements in routine health department processes. Tazewell County Health Department utilized Kaizen tools to full advantage--reducing administrative time related to food establishment inspections dramatically, exceeding the project aim. In the first month... |
Washington County Department of Public Health and Environment Completed Impact Statement: Washington County Department of Public Health and Environment improved the process of renewing annual hazardous waste licenses to over 500 hazardous waste generators. Approximately 75% of renewals contained one or more defects which slows the process, consumes unnecessary time by the inspectors... |
DPH Completed Impact Statement: Using Kaizen Rapid Improvement Event, Denver Public Health not only made the vaccine administrative process more efficient, but helped to ensure the appropriate vaccine and fund source was applied, thereby preserving scarce privately funded vaccines. |
Washington State DOH Completed Impact Statement: The Washington state health department conducted a Kaizen event to streamline the application process for HIV positive Washington state residents with low incomes to receive coverage. Multiple improvements were made, several target goals were exceeded, resulting in quicker access to life-saving... |
Washington State Department of Health Completed Impact Statement: Washington State Department of Health enhanced their ability to lower the risk of clients receiving substandard care in hospital settings. Using a Lean process, staff implemented a host of improvements to increase the rate of hospital inspections conducted within the state-mandated 18-month... |
YCHD Completed Impact Statement: Yadkin-County Health department used QI tools and methods decrease the time for notifying clients of abnormal Pap smear results, enabling clients to make informed decisions about follow-up care. |
Cumberland County Health Department Completed Impact Statement: Cumberland County Health Department achieved dramatic improvements in the quality of services offered by their Adult Health Clinic through a Kaizen event. Prescription refill wait times decreased from as long as 6 weeks to less than 72 hours, and referrals to specialists, many of which had lengthy... |
NC Center for Public Health Quality Completed Impact Statement: The state health department developed a training program for public health staff at the state and local levels to apply continuous quality improvement in their delivery of public health services, in turn resulting in better health outcomes for the people of North Carolina. |
Macon County Public Health Completed Impact Statement: Challenged by undesired delays for clinic appointments, high no-show rates, client dissatisfaction, and suboptimal productivity, Macon County Public used QI to implement an open access clinic appointment system that allowed them to schedule appointments within 72 hours for all clients and all... |
Cabarrus Health Alliance Completed Impact Statement: In order to improve client satisfaction and increase the efficiency of WIC visits, this medium size local health department used QI to improve their Open Access appointment system. They were able to reduce the time for a complete WIC visit by 25% and increase participant satisfaction to 96%. |