J Ambul Care Manage. 2025 Jan-Mar 01;48(1):15-24. doi: 10.1097/JAC.0000000000000514. Epub 2024 Nov 19.
ABSTRACT
Suicide remains a leading cause of death for youth nationally, with access to mental health care continuing to be an emergent care imperative for health care organizations that are struggling to triage and provide critically needed mental health services to the communities they serve. Administrative inefficiencies present a potentially life-threatening delay in access to children seeking mental health care. Health care organizations have successfully used evidence-based process improvement methodologies to improve efficiency and reduce waste, including the Lean Six Sigma methodology. This study highlights the successful use of Lean Six Sigma to create an ambulatory scheduling process that significantly reduced waitlist times and increased timeliness of access to mental health care in a large pediatric hospital.
PMID:39565016 | DOI:10.1097/JAC.0000000000000514
