Dr. Gary Wadhwa, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon

Case History of Adirondack Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. Process Improvement in Health Care, using TOC/Lean/Six Sigma

- Board Certified Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon
- President, Private Practice Adirondack Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
- Executive MBA University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- Master Black Belt, Lean Implementation Expert
- System Dynamic training at MIT
- Balance Score Card certified Train the Trainer
- TOC Student at Washington State University

CASE STUDY
New York Medical Clinic Awarded Prestigious Management Prize
Award recognizes achievements in overall quality and effectiveness

May 21, 2008, Ogden, UT—Dr. Gary Wadhwa and the Adirondack Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Center (AOMS) were awarded with the prestigious Robert E. Fox Award in recognition of Dr. Wadhwa’s remarkable improvement results in the Adirondack medical clinic located in upstate New York.

AOMS was able to properly identify and effectively exploit three of the most common struggles in the Health Care industry; collections, patient recruitment and proper use of the doctors’ time. Through the implementation of continuous process improvement techniques, normally associated with manufacturing plants, Dr. Wadhwa and his team were able to dramatically improve the effectiveness of their surgery center by increasing the number of patient visits by 60%, while simultaneously increasing healthcare quality and patient satisfaction, with the same amount of physicians and resources. AOMS was also able to increase the amount of money collected from patients by 78% and the charge per patient by 28% over the same time period.

These incredible improvements were the result of implementing a collaboration of organizational improvement philosophies comprised of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), LEAN, and Six Sigma, normally used in business, into the medical world.
The award for small organizations was given to AOMS at the 2008 Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Symposium, which was held in Ogden, Utah this spring. Numerous Process Improvement experts made presentations at the CPI Symposium.

The Fox Award is renowned as the “Oscar of organizational improvement awards,” according to James Holt, professor of engineering management at Washington State University and a CPI expert. Holt, a member of the Fox Awards selection committee, said the awards will be given to organizations that not only delivered clear bottom-line results, but show strong prospects for continued improvement through innovative thinking.