What is Standard Work?
Standard work is a visual guide to accomplish a job quickly and accurately. Using standard work increases the speed of production, improves quality, and creates a more enjoyable, predictable and safe work environment.
Standard work shows the process—that’s important. It’s visual. It uses abbreviated key visuals to simplify the process for others. It includes the sequence of steps and highlights methods for avoiding common or costly errors.
Standard work is strategically placed in the flow of the work for so it can be immediately accessed and referenced by those performing the work. It’s not a work operating procedure or training. Standard work must be designed by and for those performing the work. Their expertise is critical to ensure repeatable results.
In keeping with this principle, we asked our resident etiquette expert, Patient Advisor Mary Martha Tripeny, to create standard work for thank you notes. Print it out and keep it next to your thank you note stash. It might just make saying thank you easier.
The Mary Martha Method
Mary Martha Tripeny
Hospitalist Ryan Murphy introduces quality improvement (QI): The systematic and continuous approach to improvement.
Improvement science is about making everyday tasks easier and faster. This week, Steve uses the 6-phase value improvement methodology to build a highly-reliable morning routine.
This week, Steve describes a genius (yet simple) data collection tool: the check sheet. Colline Prasad and the SSTU nursing team used check sheets in their work reducing call lights, a project that turned out to be a triple-win; an intervention that improved patient perception of responsiveness, increased patient safety, and decreased nurse distraction.
