UNMC Interim Chancellor H. Dele Davies, MD, is beginning the implementation of UNMC’s new efficiency effort, called the UNMC Better Processes Initiative.
Brought to the forefront by Dr. Davies and led by the UNMC Office of Business and Finance, the process improvement program will be implemented across UNMC and all its colleges, departments, institutes and other administrative units.
To direct the initiative, UNMC has hired Matt Singh, who will serve as director for Lean and business process improvement in the UNMC Office of Business and Finance.
Lean is a set of principles that are part of an industry-standard methodology for improving business and institutional processes and is the core of the UNMC Better Processes Initiative.
“Lean is very people centric because it is intended to make work easier and better for everyone involved,” Dr. Davies said. “It’s really a process of increasing speed and efficiency by eliminating waste. It will help us alleviate pain points, reduce frustration and improve job satisfaction.”
The initiative also will draw on Six Sigma, another methodology that reduces variations in processes to eliminate errors and improve quality.
Singh, who brings experience with Children’s Nebraska and the Nebraska Department of Administrative Services, will report to Susan Kraft Mann, UNMC’s associate vice chancellor for business and finance and the director of budget and fiscal affairs.
The initiative will fulfill several critical strategies in the UNMC Strategic Plan – promoting extraordinary stewardship and effectiveness across UNMC and promoting extraordinary partnerships and engagement.
While UNMC has extraordinary people on staff, Dr. Davies said, the institution’s business processes are often redundant and unclear, which slows workflow.
Kraft Mann said that while the UNMC Omaha campus has experienced tremendous growth over the last several decades, resources have not kept pace with that growth.
“As a result, we are leaning into this opportunity to improve the efficiencies and effectiveness of the processes across campus,” Kraft Mann said. “We want to help people be able to do their jobs more efficiently, more effectively, increase employee satisfaction and generate some cost savings along the way.”
To address that challenge, UNMC will apply “Lean Six Sigma,” combining the two methodologies to creative day-to-day frontline operation improvements.
“I look forward to doing training sessions here to help people get set up for success at all levels,” Singh said.
Here are some of the key concepts behind the initiative:
- “Lean” principles focus on eliminating waste, maximizing value among the staff and streamlining workflows.
- “Six Sigma” is about defining a problem, measuring the process, analyzing the root causes behind the problem, improving it and controlling the results.
- Trained “M Teams” will lead the efforts within UNMC’s various units. The term comes from the Spanish word “Mejor” or the Latin “Melior,” meaning “Better.” These teams will be made up of frontline staff, administrators, clinicians and analysts, led by the area’s trained facilitator.
- An “M Team Central Coordinating Committee” will guide the priorities, ensure alignment with UNMC’s plan, track outcomes and champion the program. It will include six to 10 representatives from a cross section of different UNMC units. Singh will be the leader of the M Team Central Coordinating Committee.
- Over both of those efforts, the Chancellor’s Council will receive reports from the Central Coordinating Committee, review the impact and also ensure alignment with UNMC’s mission and priorities.
As a next step, UNMC will form the Central Coordinating Committee and identify priority areas.
Senior leaders across UNMC already have undergone training originally led by Nebraska Medicine, which had implemented it for the organization’s own operation improvement efforts. Members of the new Central Coordinating Committee will do similar training, as will two to four members of every UNMC unit. That training will be led by Singh.
The initiative is in the process of getting a website set up with more information and opportunities for training. Until then, individuals can email Matt Singh for more information.
“Our goal is that every single unit will have more than one person trained in Lean Six Sigma,” Dr. Davies said.