ASQ Selects Creative Healthcare For Six Sigma Training Program

Milwaukee, August 11, 2005 -- The American Society for Quality (ASQ) and Creative Healthcare (CHC) will soon offer blended learning Six Sigma training courses to quality professionals in the healthcare industry. The program will combine CHC's on-line training program and classroom instruction with webinars (an on-line learning experience that includes a voice link to an instructor, slides, and other real-time learning content) produced by ASQ.

The first blended-learning, green-belt training sessions will be held November 9, 10, and 11, in Atlanta, GA. Courses will also be offered at ASQ headquarters in Milwaukee and at CHC headquarters in Scottsdale, AZ

Creative Healthcare, a successful performance improvement firm since 1998, began offering Six Sigma training to healthcare providers the following year. Its training programs are specifically designed to appeal to a broad range of healthcare providers and suppliers, including hospitals, health plans, and pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Six Sigma is a performance improvement methodology using statistical analysis to reveal the root cause of defects in products and performance. Long used in manufacturing, its principles and techniques have been introduced into the healthcare, service, education, and other sectors with impressive results. The American Society for Quality is a leading provider of Six Sigma resources including training, publications, and certifications.

Under this new agreement, participants will now have the option of learning Six Sigma in their work or home setting and at their own pace, knowing that live instructional help is readily available. Program completion will provide participants with a major portion of the foundational knowledge necessary to take an ASQ certification examination.

"The partnership agreement reached by the American Society for Quality and Creative Healthcare is a response to the increasing interest shown by healthcare organizations to deploy rigorous performance improvement practices, as well as growing demand for flexible quality training programs tailored to the healthcare industry," said Jerry Maraini, ASQ president. "For example, workforce shortages and financial constraints in healthcare make it difficult for personnel to leave their workplace for training. However, advanced quality training is critical to the design or re-design of processes, given the current demands for improved efficiency and patient safety.

"This unique, blended-learning program will allow healthcare organizations to elevate their entire management and clinical staff to higher levels of performance because it includes a statistical analysis package that can be put to immediate use in analyzing data, improving process performance and developing best practices."

Creative Healthcare, formed specifically to assist healthcare organizations in their efforts at performance improvement, was one of the first to recognize the importance of Six Sigma and Lean in healthcare, and has published widely on their potential. Today, CHC is the leading provider of Six Sigma project consulting and training deployment in healthcare. For more information, visit the Creative Healthcare Website at www.creative-healthcare.com.

The American Society for Quality www.asq.org is the world's leading authority on quality. With more than 90,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement, and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools, and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners, and everyday consumers, encouraging all to Make Good Great™. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., the 59-year-old organization is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator.

For more information, please contact Dan Vnuk at dvnuk@asq.org.

# # #