6. Prioritize opportunities to improve by doing the following:

a. Complete an RCA using a fishbone diagram with the following categories: people (patients), people (staff/employees), policies and procedures, and plant (facilities/equipment);

b. Describe how you would collect data about how often the root causes contribute to the problem to determine where your greatest opportunity for improvement would be; and

c. Design a Pareto chart from the data given in the table above

(you may also use hypothetical data to design your Pareto chart).

7. Review the following change concepts (Langley et al. 1996), and identify the ones that may apply to your process:

• Eliminate waste (e.g., things that are not used, intermediaries, unnecessary duplication)

• Improve workflow (e.g., minimize handoffs, move steps in the process closer together, find and remove bottlenecks, do tasks in parallel, adjust to high and low volumes)

• Manage time (e.g., reduce set-up time and waiting time)

• Manage variation (create standard processes where appropriate)
• Design systems to avoid mistakes (use reminders)