Lean Industries Series Lean Healthcare Lean Industries Series

Topics What is Lean? Why Lean Healthcare? What is Lean Healthcare? Benefits of Lean Healthcare Implementing Lean Healthcare Leading Lean Hospitals Summary The Bottom Line

Why Lean Healthcare? The basic values of Lean Healthcare are to: Put the customer/patient first Define value in terms of the customer Learn to see the 8 wastes of Healthcare Make “less is more” the way to do things To be a Lean Thinker means to constantly strive to improve by focusing on driving out waste in all its forms. By attacking the ever present 8 wastes of Healthcare, greater value can be created with less effort.

Why Lean Healthcare? Lean is based on reducing costs rather than raising prices or reducing services. Source: www.leanhealthcaresolutions.com

Why Lean Healthcare? Why implement lean into the healthcare industry 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions per year in the US 500 incorrect surgical operations per week 50 new born babies dropped at birth per day Enormous defect rate (estimated at nearly 45% by the New England Journal of Medicine, June 2003) Cost escalation 60%-80% of costs can be reduced Work and patient flow will improve Patient as well as non-patient care processes will improve Improves morale, productivity and bottom line Source: www.leanhealthcaresolutions.com

Types of Healthcare Waste PATIENT CARE EXAMPLE (ONCOLOGY) Why Lean Healthcare? Types of Healthcare Waste TYPES LABORATORY EXAMPLE PATIENT CARE EXAMPLE (ONCOLOGY) Defects Mislabeled patient specimens Wrong medication delivered to patient Overproduction “Just in case” blood tubes drawn from patients but not used Patients seen by MD faster than can be treated by chemo causing delays Transportation Moving specimens long distances from receiving to testing Long walks from MD clinic to chemotherapy Waiting Specimens waiting in batches for testing Patients waiting due to schedule exceeding capacity Inventory Expired test reagents Expired chemo drugs Motion Technologist waling due to poor layout Nurses searching for missing supplies Over processing Time/date stamps on labels that are not used Time spent creating a schedule that is not followed Human Potential Employee ideas not listened to Source: www.superfactory.com

Summary American healthcare is in crisis The industry is struggling with skyrocketing costs, poor quality, nursing shortages and employee dissatisfaction Healthcare providers are realizing the imperative of improving quality and safety and eliminating waste as strategies Lean healthcare is a way to transform your entire organization into a safe and high-quality, high-performing healthcare deliver system Lean Healthcare is the “how to” of managing change and creating continuous improvement

There is no one lean best way – but several! Summary Lean thinking embeds quality at source into every process – with big implications for mortality and medical errors It frees up the latent capacity in current systems – without requiring new capital It releases more time to spend on solving the difficult cases As you improve current processes you see new opportunities for designing alternative ways of delivering care – with different working practices and the right equipment There is no one lean best way – but several!

Summary Lean healthcare doesn’t happen unless: Someone is responsible for rethinking the whole process Is supported by all those involved in running the process The organization, with expert help, develops a future state plan that shows where to conduct breakthrough improvement events and where to use lean tools

The Bottom Line Healthcare facilities must find ways to conserve resources in order to keep costs contained and reduced to ensure patient health and safety. This can only be accomplished by reducing waste through continuous improvement Lean Healthcare will improve profitability for your healthcare organization