From the November 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Here’s another example: Many hospitals use centralized scheduling. The scheduling staff have no expertise in radiology and use a template to allocate the amount of time for a test. If the hospital has not updated their scheduling template to reflect new scan times based on new equipment purchased, patients, physicians, radiology staff, and the scanner will have increased waste due to idle time. The list goes on. Fortunately, there are tools to help mitigate these obstacles and others like them.
Tools for getting lean
Organizations must fully commit to lean methodology (not occasional use of a lean tool) or risk falling short of achieving the performance improvement they seek. They must adopt lean as their operational model which involves integrating the use of the appropriate tool in a way that fosters continuous improvement.
• Standard work methods — assumes there is always a best way, maintains that a consistent process yields consistent outcomes, is meant to be improved and is developed by the people who do the work
• Continuous (single piece) flow as opposed to batching — decreases turnaround time, reduces potential error
• Balanced distribution of work
• Visual management controls — information sharing exposes abnormalities, prevents errors, allows for quick recovery, supports standardized work, eliminates waste, and encourages staff to surface and solve problems.
• Flexible operations
• FIFO (first in, first out) for orders and patients
• Error proofing: methods that help staff avoid mistakes
• Strong leadership
You can’t manage what you can’t measure
A lean process can create an environment that makes people uncomfortable. But it forces them to create and grow, too, which is why directly involving staff is vital. Organizations must measure the outcome of a process, but equally important is measuring how staff members conform to the new process. That will give you the “why” when overall results don’t meet expectations and something to celebrate when they do. No matter the results, organizations must be transparent with them to build a culture of trust where employees feel safe enough to bring up issues that aren’t working.
Visual management will help. Displaying metrics exposes abnormalities, and that is imperative to implementing the right change. You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and if you don’t communicate the metrics to staff, they won’t see the results and change their behavior.
In summary, lean is the creation of continuous flow and the elimination of waste in order to increase the value-added portion of the process. It’s a structured, methodical, systematic approach to solve complex process problems. Lean is more than a set of tools — it's a philosophy. Successful lean practitioners know that the whole system and structure of an organization must be aligned and plan organization strategy accordingly.
