What is Angyaq Quality System?
“Angyaq” is the Yup’ik word for “boat.” This vessel allows us to travel on our river towards excellence that aligns with our corporate Napartet Strategic plan.
The Angyaq Quality System is managed with Lean tools and methods. This system aims to increase value from the customer’s perspective. By eliminating waste, we can create new opportunities and define effective standardization of service provided to elevate the customer’s experience.
Lean began with Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System. He said:
“Without a standard, there can be no improvement.”
Being a high-reliability organization begins with establishing effective standardization of all work. This requires performance management with observation and analysis of workflow and constant monitoring of demand and capacity. Team engagement is essential for performance management; the team’s attention toward standardization and the best quality fuels improvement efforts. We use Lean tools and methods to drive this continuous improvement.
The six components of the Lean philosophy are Elimination of Waste, A Broad View, Simplicity, Continuous Improvements, Visibility, and Flexibility.
The Elimination of Waste
The Elimination of Waste is central to the model framework; identifying and removing waste creates efficiency and defines the value of activities.
A Broad View
A Broad View is about strategy and planning, thinking strategically, and incorporating long-term planning into daily management. This means avoiding tunnel vision and reducing silos. This also involves defining goals that will drive the process.
Simplicity
Simplicity is not only about waste reduction but also reducing human error and making fixing mistakes easier. This is done by breaking down complex scenarios into simple parts and processes.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous Improvement is a cycle of Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) that involves brainstorming, process observation, and improvement suggestions from all levels of staff. This involves a systematic problem-solving approach using A3s to employ prescribed steps to solve an issue.
Visibility
Visibility is about identifying and eliminating waste and organizational transparency. Waste cannot be eliminated if it is invisible. This applies to all levels of operation: workspaces should be open and uncluttered, from facilities to communication channels to software systems. Visibility boosts continuous improvement.
Flexibility
Flexibility means the ability to adapt to the needs of the customer. Additionally, if we are to have continuous improvement, we need to be flexible for change.
Lean is about creating needed value with fewer resources and less waste, practicing continuous experimentation to achieve excellent value. This model empowers employees with a culture of problem-solving that engages the workforce to contribute to the organization’s success. Ultimately, Lean is about improving service quality to increase patient and employee safety and satisfaction.
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News and Updates
An opportunity for your future: Angyaq Quality System leadership development program
Are you or someone you know interested in learning leadership skills in Lean and improvement? YKHC is launching a new leadership development program within the Angyaq Quality System. This is a one-year rotation, spending 25% of the time in the Lean Transformation office and 75% at their regular jobs. During this time,
Angyaq Quality System (AQS) word of the month: Catchball
Catchball is part of the strategic planning process where all YKHC employees generate ideas and align the work in their departments with the organization’s goals. Strategic planning is an annual process where YKHC conducts an environmental scan and gathers customer feedback to shape the goals and priorities for the upcoming
Lean transformation progress survey
We want to know how YKHC is doing with building the Angyaq Quality System (AQS). Please provide feedback on the Lean Transformation progress within our organization! YKHC began implementing Lean methodology in 2016. In 2022, we began to evaluate where we are in our Lean Transformation journey—that is, how much
Input requested on YKHC strategic priorities for 2024
In April 2023, YKHC hosted the Tribal Unity Gathering. Tribal delegates from the 58 tribes we serve join us to discuss YKHC’s accomplishments and future direction. This important event allows the tribes we serve to provide us feedback and input on what additional work our organization can focus on to
Rapid Process Improvement Workshop (RPIW): Emergency Department
Team members from the Emergency Department (ED), Lab, Safety & Security, Registration, Outpatient, and Inpatient joined between June 5 and June 9 for a Rapid Performance Improvement Workshop (RPIW) on focused on Customer Satisfaction within the Emergency Department. A RPIW is an intensive event where cross-functional teams collaborate to improve.
Education
Visit HealthStream to see upcoming Lean training opportunities.
Request a Training
The Lean Transformation department can work with your team on specific needs whether this involves defining a process, learning more about specific lean tools, developing daily management, or process improvement events.
* Click on the Boats and the Priorities below to veiw the details.
Napartet Strategy
As described by our late honorary board member Dr. Paul John, “napartet” are the masts of the boats that led him and his father out to traditional fishing waters.
MISSION: Working Together to Achieve Excellent Health.
VISION: Through Native Self-Determination and Culturally Relevant Health Systems, we strive to be the healthiest people.
2024 Priorities
Increase Access to Care
Goal Statement: Increase access to primary care and improve the patient experience by increasing appointment availability.
Improvement Focus Areas:
- Increase daily availability of appointments
- Standardize the flow of procedural appointments
- Scheduling flow and standardization
- Access to lower acuity issues and quick care
- Cancer screenings
- Flow of pre-operative visits
- Specialty appointments available in Bethel (ANMC Providers)
Improve Emergency Response in Villages
Goal Statement: Improve the response to emergencies in the villages by focusing on increasing first responders in the village, improving our emergency response communication, and reducing the time for Health Aides to respond.
Improvement Focus Areas:
- Village Health Aide Coverage Process
- Connectivity and communication across the region
- Provider and Health Aide communication and collaboration
- Training for Health Aides and First Responders
- Health Aide Well-being
- Recruiting and hiring new Health Aides
Improve Travel Communication
Goal Statement: Improve travel communication in preparing patients for their medical travel by developing welcome packets, increasing communication methods, and increasing the sharing of information about travel-related topics.
Improvement Focus Areas:
- Patient travel preparation
- YKHC Caller ID
- Texting communication
- Updating the welcome packet
- Communication campaigns
- Village clinic collaboration in preparing travel packets for patients
Increase Village Access to Care Closer to Home
Goal Statement: Increase village access to care and provide care closer to home for our village patients through increased village coverage of a health aide or a provider in the clinic.
Improvement Focus Areas:
- Scheduling staff in the clinics – priority & communication
- Coordinating “in training” itinerants with experienced itinerants to double capacity
- Appointment cancellations and no-shows
Increase Suicide Prevention & Access to Behavioral Health
Goal Statement: Increase suicide prevention activities in the YK Delta communities and increase access to Behavioral Health through an improved patient and provider flow.
Improvement Focus Areas:
- Communication process in responding to behavioral emergencies
- Community outreach and communication across the YK Delta
- Assessment and intake process
- Hiring village-based staff
- Village trips for prevention services & access
- Increasing Youth Calricaraq & Qaruyun
- Workforce development & training programs
Compendium of Tools
- 5S: A workplace organization method that describes organizing a work space for efficiency and effectiveness. Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- Spaghetti Diagram: A floor plan of the path taken by a person, part, or dataset of information as it travels through an organization. Its name derives from the fact that the route typically looks as disorganized as a plate of spaghetti. Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- Standard Operating Process: a clear, concise, and written description of how to perform a particular process or task so that the outcome will be safe, efficient, and of the highest Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- Time Observation Form: This form documents time observations of a task or process. Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- Standard Work Combination Sheet: This form documents the steps to perform a task, including the times for each step to be completed. Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- A3: an 11” x 17” sheet of paper that frames all the elements of a problem to be solved: history, root cause, future vision, and implementation plan. This document is used for several kinds of improvement initiatives. It confines projects to a manageable size by containing the related information on a single sheet of paper.
- Electronic fillable Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- Printable Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- Fishbone: A tool for conducting root cause analysis of a problem or issue by analyzing different areas and identifying specific factors contributing to the problem. Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- 5 Why’s: A tool for conducting root cause analysis that questions why a problem happens at least 5 times to find the root cause of the issue. Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act): The PDSA cycle is used to plan a change, implement the change, study the results, and act based on the observed outcomes. Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- Value Stream Map (VSM): A graphic depiction of the value-added tasks needed to transform inputs into outputs required by a customer. A VSM is used to analyze, improve, and design processes. Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- Daily Huddle & Visual Board: A daily management tool and standard agenda for daily huddles.
- Genba Observations: A tool for visiting the workplace and making observations to determine what is going well and where there are challenges.
- Leader Standard Work: This tool specifies actions to be taken daily to focus on the processes in each leader’s area of responsibility. This tool ensures that activities necessary to run and improve business happen routinely. Policy Manager – MCN Healthcare (ellucid.com)
- Goal Development & Strategic Alignment: Tools on the team and individual goal development using the Napartet Strategies as reference and guide.
- Daily Management Assessment – Frontline Leaders: A tool for determining the status of a frontline leader’s daily management.
- Daily Management Assessment – Mid-Line and Executive Leaders: A tool for determining the status of a mid-line or executive leader’s daily management.
