Quest Diagnostics 2000 Annual Report Download - page 7

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5
The patient comes first in everything
we do. Our passion is to provide every
patient and every customer with services
and products of uncompromising
quality — error free, on time, every time.
We do that by dedicating ourselves
to the relentless pursuit of excellence
in the services we provide.
Value: Quality We intend to differentiate Quest Diagnostics
from the competition based on undisputed qual-
ity leadership, and Six Sigma Quality is the way
we will accomplish this. Our management and
employees have embraced the goal of Six Sigma
Quality, or “virtual perfection,” and we have
launched quality improvement projects through-
out the company that are producing results.
Virtual perfection is defined as 3.4 defects per
million opportunities, which equates to
99.9997% accuracy. The Six Sigma process
begins by listening to the voice of the customer
and involves constant measurement of our per-
formance against customer requirements. It
requires using data-based methods to identify
improvements and a rigorous process to replicate
solutions throughout the company.
One of the keys to Six Sigma is its focus on under-
standing the individual customer experience,
instead of looking at “average” performance, as
some quality systems do. That’s important
because a busy doctor who waits on hold for
two minutes doesn’t care that phones are being
answered with an average speed of 15 seconds.
We must consider what is important to each indi-
vidual customer.
To succeed, Six Sigma must become a way of life
for each and every employee. That’s why we
trained our employees on Six Sigma concepts
and are tripling to 135 the number of Black Belts
being dispatched to lead quality improvement
projects around the company in 2001. These proj-
ects cover literally every aspect of our business,
making it clear that medical quality doesn’t stop
at the lab bench. Quality is reflected in a reduced
wait time at a patient service center, a complete
and correct bill, the flawless operation of a high-
speed chemistry analyzer and much more.
Achieving Six Sigma Quality in all areas of our
business will not happen overnight. Today,
through initiatives like Six Sigma Quality and our
ISO 9001 certification program, we have begun to
lead the way to higher quality in the field of health
care services. The lessons we have learned are
already helping us give better quality results.
Our goal is to
achieve Six
Sigma Quality
or 99.9997%
accuracy.