Healthcare Provider Decreased Patient Safety Review Time By 33% With GLSS
United States
Healthcare
Operations
33%
- The problem: The team was missing the required 45-day deadline for safety event cause analyses, putting them at risk of noncompliance and increasing the chance of repeated incidents. With rising event volume and no reliable review system in place, process improvement became essential to protect both patients and the organization.
- With GLSS, the team reduced the review cycle time from an average of 40 days to just 27 days—a 33% improvement.
In healthcare, there’s nothing more important than patient safety. When something goes wrong—especially when it results in harm—it’s critical to understand what happened and how to prevent it in the future. But with more safety events and strict deadlines for analysis, some healthcare teams find themselves falling behind.
That’s exactly what one organization faced when safety event reviews were regularly missing regulatory deadlines. Wanting to improve quickly and sustainably, they partnered with GLSS’s Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Training & Certification—a program trusted for turning challenges into results through simple, step-by-step methods.
The team also embraced Ethical Efficiency™, GLSS’s guiding principle that improvement shouldn’t come at the cost of people. Instead of rushing or cutting corners, they focused on making their processes smarter, fairer, and more effective—for both patients and staff.
By regulation, safety event cause analyses must be completed within 45 days. But the team wasn’t meeting that standard. Over the course of the year, five months’ worth of reviews missed the deadline, placing the organization at risk of noncompliance.
The bigger issue? Every delay meant a delay in learning and acting on what went wrong—which could increase the risk of repeat incidents. As more safety events occurred, the review system struggled to keep up. Without a reliable, timely review process, both patients and the organization were left more vulnerable.
Process improvement was no longer optional—it was essential to protecting people and staying compliant.
With the help of GLSS’s Training and improvement tools, the team identified two major causes behind the delays:
- No process measure was in place to monitor how long reviews were taking. Without visibility, delays were often only noticed after deadlines had passed.
- Heavy dependence on physicians and trainees for input made scheduling a challenge. Their limited availability slowed progress and made timelines harder to manage.
Without clearer tracking and better coordination, the process simply couldn’t keep pace with growing demand.
Armed with GLSS’s structured improvement methods, the team rolled out several smart, actionable changes:
- Scheduling polls were sent within 72 hours of a safety event to get the review process started right away.
- An executive sponsor was assigned early in the process to help set direction and prioritize the work.
- Timeframes were communicated upfront to all key players so expectations were clear from the start.
- A new visual management system was introduced, helping the team track milestones, spot bottlenecks, and monitor progress in real time.
These improvements didn’t require massive resources—they just made the existing system easier to manage and more transparent.
The results were both fast and meaningful. The team cut the review cycle time from an average of 40 days to just 27 days—a 33% improvement. This transformation turned a slow, unclear process into one that was proactive, transparent, and much easier to manage.
Tasks that used to sit idle for days were now triggered early and tracked every step of the way. Team members felt more confident and engaged, and leadership gained visibility into the process. Most importantly, the organization became better equipped to respond quickly to patient harm events, reinforcing their commitment to safety and compliance.
with GLSS
With help from GLSS Training & Certification, this healthcare team transformed a critical part of their safety program—without overwhelm, confusion, or delay. The course’s clear, practical approach gave them the tools they needed to act fast and fix what wasn’t working.
GLSS’s innovative instructional design helped turn insights into action, Ethical Efficiency™ kept the focus on doing the right thing for everyone involved—patients, providers, and the broader system.
Now, the organization is on stronger footing: more compliant, more responsive, and more committed than ever to patient safety. And with a new skill set and structured framework in place, the team is ready for whatever challenge comes next.
*We value our clients’ confidentiality. While we’ve changed their names, the results are real.
