What Is Lean Healthcare?

Have you heard of Lean Healthcare? I am sureknowledge to improve processes.
many of you have and that quite afew haven't.Leaders of an organization empower employees
The concept of lean healthcare has been adoptedto present ideas for improvementand then enact
from manufacturers.promising ones in order to save time, money and
The idea of lean manufacturing and lean serviceimprove patienthealth and satisfaction. One such
are most visibly displayed bytechnique for empowering employees is thekaizen.
Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota has so refinedThis is a meeting of staff to quickly generate
and developed the techniquesthat organizationssolutions to a process whichhas been identified as
around the world are using their ideas to improveneeding improvement; the team members are
their ownorganization and are benchmarkingrepresentativesof those actually involved in the
against Toyota.process. A kaizen event is marked as a
Lean healthcare is basically reducing waste in thebrief,intense effort to solve such a problem. It
delivery of service both directly tothe patient andmay take several hours or a day or two.
to internal customers, such as human resourceThe work time lost of the members of the
services toemployees. For instance, leankaizen is more than offset by theoutcomes of
techniques help eliminate duplicatedthe meeting.
procedures,such as a nurse taking the bloodLean healthcare is driven by the identified needs
pressure of a patient and then the doctor doingof the patient or customer. Forinstance, waiting
thesame a few minutes later. It also makes suretime is deemed waste. A patient having to wait
that all of the necessary tools andproducts are inmore than a day ortwo to see a doctor for an
an examination room when needed. It is beyondoffice appointment is waste. Many in healthcare
the scope of thisarticle to fully describe leanthinkthat this is a problem which is almost
healthcare; many books have been written aboutimpossible to solve. It isn't. Solutions to thisproblem
it. Infact, the American Society of Quality in theirhave been described in several articles of Family
online bookstore has several titles,includingPractice Management, apublication of the
Lean-Six Sigma for Healthcare. I would like toAmerican Academy of Family Physicians. The
define a few techniquesfound in lean healthcare toideas are easilyadopted to sites which aren't
illustrate its value, though.primary care physician practices.
One of the most commonly used tools is ValueLean identifies the best techniques and strategies
Stream Mapping. VSM displays in aphysical graphto deliver quality care and thenmakes them
the process from beginning to end of the deliverystandard operating procedure. In fact, it is a good
of a service orprocedure in order to identifyidea to write amanual of the best processes in
wasted effort or steps that don't add value toorder that any employee can reference at any
theresults. For instance, in the April 2005 issue oftimeand also in order to use it as a training tool
Quality Progress the article Lean Sixfor new employees.
Sigma Reduces Medication Errors presents theI would like to urge you to look deeper into the
process by which a team of nursesandideas of lean healthcare. There aremany
pharmacists in a hospital setting reduced thepublications describing it, as the ASQ publication
waiting time and errors in thedelivery ofmentioned earlier. The April
medication from the pharmacy to the patient. By2006 issue of Family Practice Management has a
the use of VSM andother statistical techniques,great article for lean in the doctor'soffice; it can
the error rate was reduced from 0.33% tobe found for free online. Your efforts in
0.14% in 5months and a savings of $550,000 wasimplementing lean techniqueswill be rewarding to
realized.both you and your patients.
Lean healthcare emphasizes tapping employees