For Immediate Release
ASQ Launches Lean Six Sigma
Black Belt for Healthcare
New Blended Format Training Adds Convenience, Cost Savings
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 1, 2007 – Improved care and increased patient satisfaction are primary objectives in today’s competitive healthcare environment. The American Society for Quality (ASQ), www.asq.org, is introducing a new Lean Six Sigma Black Belt for Healthcare course to address those objectives. The five-month session will provide participants with the skills to improve delivery of care while at the same time reducing costs throughout the healthcare facility.
The Lean Six Sigma Black Belt for Healthcare course, which will take place from January 7 through May 19, 2008, is offered in a new blended format that includes real-time instructor-led virtual and face- to-face sessions and self-paced Web-based training (from MoreSteam) with audiocasts and coaching. The classroom component will take place at ASQ headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“This comprehensive full Black Belt training opportunity is a response by ASQ to a critical need in the healthcare arena,” said Paul Borawski, ASQ executive director and chief strategic officer. “The blended format is uniquely suited to the 24/7 lifestyles of many healthcare professionals.”
This course will be of interest to hospital administrators, risk management professionals, nurse managers, management engineers, quality improvement and quality assurance directors and their staff, planning managers, IT clinic managers and any other quality professionals or physicians leading quality improvement efforts.
The course instructor is Sandi Claudell, a Master Black Belt who for the past 15 years has taught courses in JIT, error-proofing devices, quick changeovers, design of experiments, QFD and other tools commonly used in Six Sigma and lean. She has worked with Toyota, Motorola, Ford Motor Company and most recently with Creative Healthcare to help hospitals and healthcare organizations use lean to improve both the delivery of care and administrative functions.
Lean Six Sigma is an innovative approach to reducing costs and optimizing productivity while maintaining or enhancing quality through the systematic removal of process waste and delays. Through the use of Lean Six Sigma, healthcare organizations have been able to significantly bring and keep costs down and improve patient care, productivity and capacity.
For more information or to register for the course, please visit www.asq.org/courses/blended-lean-six-sigma-black-belt-healthcare.html.
The American Society for Quality, www.asq.org, has been the world’s leading authority on quality for more than 60 years. With more than 93,000 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, Wisconsin, ASQ is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.
