Applying Lean In Healthcare

Typically entrenched and systemic, healthcare problems require the sort of comprehensive solutions that can only be addressed by a change in culture and a shift in thinking. Applying Lean in Healthcare: A Collection of International Case Studies demonstrates how honest appraisal, intelligent planning, and vigilant follow-up have led to dramatic imp

A growing, aging population; the rise to epidemic proportions of various chronic diseases; competing, often overlapping medical technologies; and of course, skyrocketing costs compounded by waste and inefficiency - these are just a few of the multifarious challenges currently facing healthcare delivery. An unexpected source of solutions is being imported from the manufacturing sector: lean thinking. Lean Principles for Healthcare presents a conceptual framework, management principles, and practical tools for professionals tasked with designing and implementing modern, streamlined healthcare systems or overhauling faulty ones. Focusing on core components such as knowledge management, e-health, patient-centeredness, and collaborative care, chapters illustrate lean concepts in action across specialties (as diverse as nursing, urology, and emergency care) and around the globe. Extended case examples show health systems responding to consumer needs and provider realities with equal efficiency and effectiveness, and improved quality and patient outcomes. Further, contributors tackle the gamut of technological, medical, cultural, and business issues, among them: Initiatives of service-oriented architecture towards performance improvement Adapted lean thinking for emergency departments Lean thinking in dementia care through smart assistive technology Supporting preventive healthcare with persuasive services Value stream mapping for lean healthcare A technology mediated solution to reduce healthcare disparities Geared toward both how lean ideas can be carried out and how they are being used successfully in the real world, Lean Principles for Healthcare not only brings expert knowledge to healthcare managers and health services researchers but to all who have an interest in superior healthcare delivery.

You likely don’t need any more tools, programs, or workshops to improve your hospital. What you need is a simple and consistent approach to manage problem-solving. Filling this need, this book presents a Lean management system that can help break down barriers between staff, directors, and administration and empower front-line staff to resolve their own problems. Lean Daily Management for Healthcare: A Strategic Guide to Implementing Lean for Hospital Leaders provides practical, step-by-step guidance on how to roll out Lean daily management in a hospital setting. Ideal for leaders that may feel lost in the transition process, the book supplies a roadmap to help you identify where your hospital currently is in its Lean process, where it’s headed, and how your role will change as you evolve into a Lean leader. Illustrating the entire process of implementing Lean daily management, the book breaks down the cultural progression of units into discreet, objectively measurable phases. It identifies what leaders at all levels of the organization must do to progress units into the next phase of development. Complete with case studies from different service areas in the hospital, the book explains how to link problem-solving boards together to achieve meaningful and measurable improvements in: the emergency department, the operating room, discharge times, clinics, quality, and patient satisfaction. After reading this book you will understand how consistent rounding, a few whiteboards, pen-and-paper data, and a focused effort on working the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle can help you build a common problem-solving bench strength throughout your organization—establishing the framework upon which future improvement can be built.

Typically entrenched and systemic, healthcare problems require the sort of comprehensive solutions that can only be addressed by a change in culture and a shift in thinking. Applying Lean in Healthcare: A Collection of International Case Studies demonstrates how honest appraisal, intelligent planning, and vigilant follow-up have led to dramatic improvements in a variety of healthcare settings across the world. It teaches us how innovative organizations can find sustainable solutions to seemingly intractable problems by following a path guided by Lean Thinking. Lean methods may not solve every healthcare problem, but as these cases prove, changing a culture rather than personnel results in more effective sustainable change.

The book shows readers exactly how to use Lean tools to design healthcare work that is smooth, efficient, error free and focused on patients and patient outcomes. It includes in-depth discussions of every important Lean tool, including value stream maps, takt time, spaghetti diagrams, workcell design, 5S, SMED, A3, Kanban, Kaizen and many more, all presented in the context of healthcare. For example, the book explains the importance of quick operating room or exam room changeovers and shows the reader specific methods for drastically reducing changeover time. Readers will learn to create healthcare value streams where workflows are based on the pull of customer/patient demand. The book also presents a variety of ways to continue improving after initial Lean successes. Methods for finding the root causes of problems and implementing effective solutions are described and demonstrated. The approach taught here is based on the Toyota Production System, which has been adopted worldwide by healthcare organizations for use in clinical, non-clinical and administrative areas.

Written to address the growing demand for Lean Six Sigma expertise, this text provides a step-by-step Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) process, that describes how to use the tools appropriate for each phase and provide data where tools can be practiced by students. Applying Lean Six Sigma in Health Care trains students on performance improvement techniques and current terminology so that they will be prepared to conduct Lean Six Sigma projects in large health care systems and support the physicians and nurses running these projects. With a focus on application, students learn and utilize the DMAIC process, by applying it to an improvement project that is carried through the text.

This book serves as an introduction to how Lean can be applied in health care, and it emphasizes that Lean principles can be tailored to meet the needs of corporate, manufacturing, service, food, and health care industries.A good resource for those looking to improve patient-centered care.For organizations looking for ideas as they embark on their Lean journey, these case studies provide wonderful examples and an opportunity to take a glimpse into the many possibilities of Lean. These case studies move beyond the theory of Lean and illustrate how Lean translates into simple actions that are capable of effecting positive change. The case studies included here show how Lean thinking is being applied to preadmission testing areas, supply rooms, and outpatient clinics, as well as for delivering food to patients and reducing OR eliminating cancellations.

Organizations around the world are using Lean to redesign care and improve processes in a way that achieves and sustains meaningful results for patients, staff, physicians, and health systems. This book systematically describes how NHS Highland uses Lean principles and mindsets to improve safety, quality, access, and morale while reducing costs, and increasing capacity. Existing books often describe the gains obtained by using Lean methods, but often do not describe the underlying concepts and methods in details. Other books describe continuous improvement work, or specific techniques such as daily management in detail. This book seeks to occupy a middle space by providing an overview of the range of Lean ideas applicable to healthcare with sufficient examples and cases studies from NHS Highland and partner organizations so readers can see them in use and practice.