Continuous Improvement and Lean
The Center for Health Care Quality (CHCQ), in alignment with The California Department of Public Health (CDPH), is focusing on being agile, adaptive, and responsive to the public health challenges facing California and our diverse communities. We are committed to Continuous Improvement and Lean methodologies by promoting a culture of trust, respect, innovation, and learning within our Center so we can provide the best services to California residents and our stakeholders.
For a public organization Lean is defined as: Systematically developing people to solve problems and consuming the fewest possible resources while continuously improving processes to provide value to community members and prosperity to society.
Improvements can be incremental or breakthrough. A beneficial aspect of Lean is that we also save costs which contributes to our responsibility to be good financial stewards of public funds.
CHCQ Continuous Improvement Initiatives
The Center has been implementing performance improvement projects for over six years in conjunction with both internal and external assessments, and recommendations from expert consultants. The services provided by CHCQ on behalf of CDPH are regulated by local, state, and federal agencies. In many cases, polices are in place to ensure quality measures, licensing, response, and corrective actions within facilities are fulfilled in the appropriate timelines. Each initiative contributes technology or process advancements designed to eliminate waste in processes, procedures, and the cost of doing business.
The following are examples of improvement
projects and initiatives within CHCQ:
- The development of the Performance Improvement Management Office, a team of experienced project managers dedicated to initiatives designed to improve the Center, including an Internal Communications Specialist:
- Employed Pilot Projects in Technology (including enhanced survey equipment) to improve operations for surveyors in distrcit offices:
- Implemented the Risk and Safety Solutions (RSS) Online Survey Application for Skilled Nursing Facilities
- Implemented Robotics Process Automation (RPA) to improve the accuracy, timeliness, and effectiveness of specific business processes, including:
- Staffing Agency Invoice Validation
- Complaints and Facility Reported Incidents Investigations Data Transfer
- COVID-19 Mitigation Surveys Data Transfer
- Created Paperless Process Initiatives to eliminate error and improve efficiencies and accuracy in data and reporting
- Completed Complaint and/or Facility Reported Incident Projects, utilizing Lean to enhance decision making processes and support documentation completion.
- Created the Centralized Program Flexibility Unit Consodilation Project and Program Flexibility webpages.
- Centralization of the program flexibility application process from District Offices to CPFU to improve process efficiency
- Replaced the paper process (form 5000 and 5000a) with the RSS online process in January 2022 allowing for providers to submit program flexibility applications online
- Extended the RSS Online Application Project to Patient Needs Waiver and Workforce Shortage Waiver webpages, and training videos to ensure proper communication so facilities can remain or get back into compliance
- Completed a Consolidation Project of the Centralized Application Branch (CAB) for Licensure and Certification applications