HJBR Nov/Dec 2019

LDH For the Louisiana Department of Health’s (LDH) Mendy Richard, a passion for quality began at the State Police Crime Lab in 2010, where there was a massive back- log of DNA tests that waited as long as 260 days for analysis. Richard was given a challenge: eliminate the 1,700-case backlog with no additional staffing and no outsourcing. She and her team did it in a matter of months, using a conveyor belt-type process with strict stan- dards for the pace of all activities. The proj- ect cut the turnaround time to 14 days. While Mendy Richard, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Public Health, holds a box of green and yellow karate belts. The belts are awarded to trainees who successfully complete different levels of training in the Lean Six Sigma quality improvement program. the project was a lot of work, Richard said it was made easier using a process first per- fected in the manufacturing sector, called Lean Six Sigma. This process aims to elimi- nate waste while accepting no defects. Now, Richard, the deputy assistant sec- retary of the Office of Public Health’s Cen- ter for Community Preparedness and Health Protection, is deploying Lean Six Sigma across the Louisiana Department of Health, with advanced training for team members. The training empowers participants to lead their own teams, finding solutions to prob- lems in their bureaus. The 14 advanced Lean Six Sigma graduates are now using their skills to reorganize processes, eliminate rework, and rethink how LDH team mem- bers do their jobs. The Six Sigma system was first devel- oped at Motorola to ensure quality of prod- ucts, and Lean was developed at Toyota to reduce waste.After the state crime lab expe- rience, Richard realized that the Lean Six Sigma methodology, which had been com- bined into a single improvement program, could apply to government as well. Richard is certified as a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, which allows her to successfully execute projects and oversee a training pro- gram that can be used throughout Louisiana Department of Health. Richard landed at the Louisiana Depart- ment of Health after completing improve- ment projects across state government, and began using the samemethodology for new challenges that had serious consequences: The Office of Public Health was at risk of rejecting many of the specimens it was receiving from across the state because of tightened federal standards around temper- atures in specimen storage and transport. Federal authorities were holding pub- lic health officials accountable for keeping specimens within their prescribed storage temperatures, with some ranges between two and six degrees Celsius. If the temper- ature went higher or lower during trans- port to the lab, the specimens weren’t valid. With those specimens being driven across the state in courier vehicles, Richard quickly “Richard is certified as a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, which allows her to successfully execute projects and oversee a training program that can be used throughout Louisiana Department of Health.”