Something to Lean On
An Evolving Concept
The application of Lean in manufacturing has made a major impact to the performance within those organisations who have embraced it fully and although it is a relatively new and evolving concept within the healthcare sector it is already offering opportunities to reduce the time taken for patients to be seen by a specialist, the effectiveness (and value for money) of the treatment they receive and even the length of time they spend in hospital.
read moreQuality Improvement is Free
The point of a quality improvement program should not only be to improve a
product or the delivery of healthcare but it should also be to save time and money by reducing or eliminating waste or errors. For example, a doctor or nurse practitioner writes a prescription. We wouldn’t deliver some of the best quality pills along with a few randomly chosen pills and we wouldn’t completely incorrectly fill the prescription. To do either could create serious consequences. Rather, we want to only deliver the best quality. But there is another side to not achieving the best quality. If we incorrectly fill the prescription, even if there is no patient harm, there
is waste. Once the error is found, the prescription must be refilled and paperwork redone. Wasted time and money for the healthcare provider!
Quality projects build processes that prevent errors and waste. In fact, the main goal
of lean healthcare is to eliminate waste in a structured approach. The Japanese use
the term kaisen event. They use this idea to eliminate waste in any environment,
whether manufacturing or service orientated.