Creative Healthcare USA introduces the industry's first customized e-learning platform for performance improvement

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (December 9, 2004) -- Creative Healthcare USA, leaders in healthcare quality and improvement, are introducing the healthcare industry's first fully customized e-learning platform for performance improvement and operations management. It incorporates a range of performance improvement methodologies, including Six Sigma and Lean. These principles have been recognized by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program as an effective way to assess performance and to compete for their prestigious national award.

"We've invested over a year with physicians, nurses and others to develop this product, incorporating the ideas and philosophies of Six Sigma and additional performance improvement methods in a way that is uniquely suited for healthcare," says Daniel Gee, M.D., MBA, a founding partner at Creative Healthcare. "This is in essence a 'continuous learning laboratory' that allows the user to learn interactively and online at their own pace."

Dr. Gee added that the flexibility of the system can be a vital asset in hospitals where tight schedules and staffing issues often limit education and training opportunities. For a growing number of health systems, providing this level of continuing education without the logistical and cost obstacles associated with classroom training is a significant benefit. "It gives me an opportunity to learn when and where I want, based on my own schedule and demands," says Jerry Kolins, M.D., medical director, American Red Cross Blood Services, San Diego Region.

While terms like "interactive" and "e-learning" may be mere buzz words in many circles, this package lives up to its claim. Users can log on and click through various aspects of the material at their own pace, absorbing information either in written or audio form. If a concept seems unclear, the user can drill down for greater detail, or quickly by-pass already mastered concepts.

Users also gain access to detailed case studies based on specific healthcare projects, and can immediately begin using statistical analysis tools that are fundamental to improved performance.

An online instructor—selected from a panel of qualified experts including physicians and Master Black Belts in Six Sigma—is available for questions and feedback. Periodic quizzes provide users with progress benchmarks. All necessary tools and templates for effective project management are included.

Six Sigma is a systematic process with a statistical foundation designed to reveal performance defects, with goals based on customer and patient demands. These operations management principles have proven highly effective in some 100 documented projects, from ER patient flow/cycle time to supply chain management and even heavily clinically oriented processes.

The typical project in healthcare has delivered an average of $500,000 in annual savings, due in large part from "doing more with less." Since its rise to prominence with pioneering health systems, documented savings from Six Sigma projects runs into tens of millions of dollars.

Creative Healthcare was formed in 1998 to support healthcare organizations in performance improvement. Their team includes an impressive mix of physicians and Six Sigma Master Black Belts&emdash; all with at least two decades of healthcare industry experience.

"We saw during our early years a degree of hesitancy within healthcare to embrace Six Sigma because of its origins in manufacturing," says Dr. Gee. "But we also understood that these principles are too valuable - when applied appropriately - to ignore. This provided us with the call to action to develop this product."

As the push in healthcare to improve patient safety has grown, the ideas encompassed in Creative Healthcare's continuous learning lab have rapidly gained credibility. Six Sigma is currently being applied at Yale-New Haven Health System, Blood Systems Laboratories, Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC), Charleston, WV, and a growing number of other healthcare organizations.

Creative Healthcare worked collaboratively with CAMC on the new e-learning product. The firm has provided the technology platform and content, with CAMC contributing case study material. CAMC has demonstrated that the introduction of Six Sigma actually led to a statistically significant improvement in the health system's corporate culture. Creative Healthcare and CAMC co-authored the results of this study in a January 2003 article that appeared in Managed Healthcare Executive.

Ian Lazarus, FACHE, a founding partner at Creative Healthcare with more than two decades in the industry, says the e-learning platform augments and leverages any existing performance improvement initiatives to higher levels of achievement. "This is not intended to replace what healthcare organizations are already doing in performance improvement. As individuals and organizations use this system and return to it over time, it becomes integrated into everything they are doing—their culture, their perspectives, and their existing performance efforts. Ultimately, it becomes a new way of doing business," he says.

An article on the importance of e-learning in healthcare and authored by Creative Healthcare principals will appear in the March 2005 issue of Managed Healthcare Executive.