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Lean in Healthcare

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Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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  • September 22, 2008 at 3:13 pm #25687

    melvin
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    I’m preping for an interview which will launch Lean into a healthcare provider. Part of this is a presentation on what I see as the key principles of Lean and how I would introduce/deploy into their business. But I am not familiar with Lean in healthcare, I work in finance (!!).
    What are the key messages that Healthcare businesses look for in a Lean deployment? What are the hot-areas for them? What risks/issues/challenges tend to get raised?
    Looking for specific healthcare issues rather than general stuff like management buy-in, communications, etc….
    Appreciate some help.

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    September 22, 2008 at 3:28 pm #62109

    newbie
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Did you try looking under “Healthcare” on the big blue bar to your left?

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    September 22, 2008 at 10:42 pm #62110

    Stephens
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Can you provide any more info on the provider.  Is it a physician office?  Primary Care?  Specialty Care?  If it’s a physician office, do they have a manager?  If they have a manager is the individual MGMA certified?

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    September 23, 2008 at 4:48 pm #62111

    sixsigmadeewana
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Member

    Bob
    I think your thought process is correct. You need to understand the pain points for a healthcare organization. One of the key pain point is finance/revenue…surprisingly process issues are # 5 or # 7 issue but since you are interviewing for a lean opportunity you would want to focus on patient safety, improving patient flow, value stream mapping and its uses in ED, surgery etc..
    If the organization is willing to bring in a finance guy into healthcare they are obviously open minded so you should not worry about that rather focus on how you can bring in a different perspective..your finance background can actually play a key role here…
     

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    September 25, 2008 at 2:27 pm #62115

    Linda B
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    What is key for healthcare especially hospitals is streamlining people bprocesses by eliminating duplicate and non value added steps that tends to exist in all patient care processeswithin the hospital even though a lot of focus is on ER, its everywhere.. Even hospital design of units and location of supplies can contribte to inefficiency.
    So there is a lot of opportunity for lean in healthcare. Hope this helps

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    October 22, 2008 at 11:15 am #62123

    Steve M
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Member

    Please keep in mind that Health care like any other industry, has customers.  What would please the customer may be a rich area to deal with in your work as well.
     
    Good Luck!

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    October 22, 2008 at 1:49 pm #62125

    Thomas Goodwin
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Member

    As stated in another post, what type of healthcare organization makes a difference.  For example, in a clinic or hospital patients are seen at your location.  In the home care and hospice world, the patient doesn’t leave their  home yet must be cared for by an interdisciplinary team on a specific Medicare controlled intermittent basis.  This changes the dynamics of patient flow and of staff scheduling and supply issues. 

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    October 23, 2008 at 12:18 pm #62126

    Sundar Madhavan
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Member

    In Hospitals, the pain point is always the Turn Around Time of Patients.i.e. the Discharge roll.even there are other areas like OT and Bed Allocations..Hope these inputs will help u

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    November 6, 2008 at 3:53 am #62131

    Guillermo Arosemena Arosemena
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    You have to look at healthcare as a factory where the patient is moved like goods move in  a production line.He has to stop in several stations to  receive services. Time is essential, as well as cost and quality. Cycle time, non value added activities, talk time, start up time, downntime, and other indicators are basic to improve the healthcare operation
    In helthcare you find that the 8 lean wastes are all over, from outpatient consultation to hospitalization. Everywhere you look, you find nonvalue addedd activities.

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    November 11, 2008 at 9:03 am #62144

    melvin
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Thanks for everyone’s replies, I final interviewed yesterday and will know result by end of week. Seem the main factors in heatlhcare are patient safety, confidentiality, excellence in medical practice and patient doctor trust. Also that doctor’s views and gaining trust are critical to gain buy-in.

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