Application of Six Sigma management in reducing the misdiagnosis rate of acute abdomen pre-examination in emergency department

Objective To explore the effect of the Six Sigma management in reducing the pre-examination and triage error rate of emergency acute abdominal diseases. Methods Data of 367 misdiagnosed patients in Emergency Department of Shanxi Bethune Hospital from January to June 2018 were collected. Six Sigma management method was applied to the management of emergency acute abdomen triage. After analyzing the causes of errors, improvement measures were formulated and implemented.A total of 118 patients who were triaged from September 2018 to February 2019 were taken as the intervention group to evaluate the effect. Results After the implementation of Six Sigma management, the errors of acute abdomen diagnosis were significantly reduced from 9.92%(367/3 698) to 2.80%(118/4 219), and there was a significant difference before and after the implementation (χ2 value was 174.082, P < 0.05). Conclusions The application of Six Sigma management method can effectively reduce the misdiagnosis rate of emergency acute abdomen triage and realize standardized management of acute abdomen triage, which has the value of popularization and application. Key words: Six Sigma theory; Acute abdominal diseases; Emergency pre-examination and triage; Error rate