What is 'Lean Healthcare'?

Lean Healthcare or lean production, often simply "lean", is a systematic method for the elimination of waste ("Muda") within a healthcare system. The consequences of improper processes and inefficiency in the healthcare arena are vast and critical - including loss of life - and for this reason the adoption of Lean, Six Sigma and other Operational Excellence methodologies is common. Lean also takes into account waste created through overburden ("Muri") and waste created through unevenness in work loads ("Mura").

Read More: Our top 10 Lean Six Sigma Books 

 WATCH NOW: Example of Lean Healthcare from Miami Children's Hospital

WATCH NOW: Taking your Operational Excellence Program to the Next Level - Catalent Pharma Solutions

'Taking your Operational Excellence Program to the Next Level' focuses on 3 key takeaways:

• How to create a true assessment of your capabilities and gap analysis for the next level 
• Understanding where you currently are, identify the holes and plan for the future with
• Training the future operational excellence leaders - what to look for? 

Read More: Lean Six Sigma Resources

Lean Healthcare: Culture is Key

In order for lean principles to take root within a Hospital or Healthcare Organization, leaders are first advised to work to create an organizational culture that is open to and embraces lean thinking. The commitment to lean must start at the very top of the organization, engaging every level of management down to the shop floor, and all staff should be involved in helping to redesign processes to improve flow and reduce waste.

WATCH NOW: A Systematic Approach to Creating a Culture of Structured Problem Solving 

About this Video Presentation:

Key Learning Takeaways include:

• Systems govern behavior; behaviors create a culture
• Define what a system is and how one gets created
• Identify what systems you need to in order to do structured problem solving
• How is this different from what we do now and what will it lead to?

Lean & Operational Excellence in Healthcare Case Studies

Poster Presentation: Reducing the Utilization of Continuous Observations for Safety Precautions

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) is a 789 bed, Magnet-designated, adult, acute care hospital that is annually recognized as one of the nation’s best by the U.S. News & World Report in its Honor Roll of best hospitals. 

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Award-Winning Case studies: Operational Excellence Healthcare

See how 4 Hospitals & Pharmaceutical companies have transformed their organization through undertaking an Operational Excellence/Lean improvement program.

Sanofi Pasteur: 'Big Opportunity' Transformation to an Operationally Excellence Company Culture

Learn how Sanofi's 'Big Opportunity' Project transformed their company from a substandard manufacturing culture to see massive Quality Improvement, an Operational Excellence culture and a profound Business Transformation. Read the Article

University Health Network: Quality Improvement

This Operational Excellence example study shows significant process and quality improvements for over 1,500 clinicians and 3,000 students, a 70% increase in timely completion, and a 120% increase in timely delivery of Discharge Summaries. Getting better at this process and understanding its utility for patients and primary care, has enabled UHN to drive quality improvement through a patient-centred approach.

Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Centre: Supply Chain Improvement in Cancer Centre

"The goal for Supply Chain Department is timely, responsive, accurate, efficient, and effective procurement services to support all services through the use of technology for automation, data analysis and predictive analytics for superior decision making. We seek continuous improvement of the procurement and inventory management processes through competitive business strategies and advanced technologies."

Mentis Neuro Health: Reducing Patient onboarding with Digital Transformation

This Operational Excellence project is a fantastic example of a business identifying the problems caused by traditional ways of working, and solving them by deploying digital technologies and operational excellence methodologies to transform operations. Read the Article