Lean Process Improvement in Health Care

Introduction

U.S. hospitals for the transformation of awakening. They are faced with the most sweeping changes to health care since Medicare was enacted in 1960.Zakon about protecting patients was recently signed into law, significantly changes the landscape of health care for all hospitals and health facilities. Demand for services will increase astronomically, as well as 30 to 40 million people become insured, the claim will spike in 2013 and 2014.

Improving throughput in hospitals and medical care will become a challenge, calling for improved process efficiency and productivity at work, at a time when most hospitals are already at their capacity limits. Experts predict that emergency room will be hardest hit, where non-critical waiting time can be as long as four hours. Improving productivity will be even more meaningful with the predicted lack of nurses and doctors.

price pressure from insurance providers, and new rules of Medicare and Medicaid threatens financial sustainability for profit and nonprofit health ustanove.Trošak poor quality will not have to be absorbed by the hospital.

Although the Law on Protection of patients do not become fully effective until 2013, now is the time for hospitals and other health care providers begin to implement changes in the way of doing business. Hospitals need to transform the system of care and create a new model without non-value added steps, and provide high quality care for patients.

need to change

need to change

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can rely on technology to help hospitals improve efficiency, streamline processes and improve patient outcomes and patient satisfaction? In a special report on how lean processes can transform a company's outside plant, experts from Wharton and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to explain how it is possible to achieve these goals.

duration of the patient is a critical measure of effectiveness and učinkovitosti.Kraći stay means that beds turned quickly and hospitals can treat more patients without investing additional capital. According to Jon Scholl, partner and director at BCG, hospitals with 800 beds which cuts the average length of stay for only 10 percent can release up to 80 beds per year, enabling delivery of more than 4,000 additional procedures and strengthen the operating profit of nearly $ 30 million. This approach effectively "build" new beds for the hospital. With the new construction costs for an average of one million U.S. dollars per bed day ", another $ 80 million in avoided capital can accomplish," says Scholl. "If you can reduce the length of stay by 10 percent, just look at the incredible impact the hospital has ."

Lean Hospitals do more than just implement the tools and technical methods. Lean and cultural change and management system, the transformation takes time, effort and persistence. Hospitals should not expect results overnight, because Lean is a journey not a destination. Lean Hospital Value Leaders implement the infrastructure that all too familiar with the manufacturer's Lean - Lean practices training, internal consultants / specialists, and Kaizen Promotion Office and the Centre of Excellence. Lean Hospitals represent a significant training and development investment in order to teach their managers how to become a true leader of the strengthening of their employees and drive continuous process improvements.

Some Lean Hospitals used primarily kaizen event inspired by the methodology, although the method is sometimes called "rapid improvement events" or another name in health care. Other hospitals have an approach that focuses less on short events and more on creating an infrastructure for the drive to improve process efficiency. As a leading Lean Hospitals are about five years into their journey, time will tell which model (or models) will be most viable. As in the manufacturing and service organizations, lean hospitals will have to guard against regressing to old practices or behaviors.

Conclusion

lean process improvement is not a new concept, but it is relatively new to health care. There are many skeptics who believe Lean is a manufacturing strategy and is not suitable for medical care. As the manufacturing industry, hospitals are actually very complex organizations, with more interaction process. Many of the principles of the Toyota Production System, and the other lean tools may or may not apply to medical care procedures.

Bold, out-of-the-box thinking health care organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, ThedaCare, and Virginia Mason along with others, are leading the way show that the lean process improvement can reduce waste in health care and achieve similar results as other industries.

Lean principles hold the promise of reducing or eliminating wasteful activities, costs and inefficiencies in health care, creating a system that provides value to patients.