What does being “lean” have to do with operating a hospital? Better quality for the patient and increased efficiency, that’s what. Miami Children’s Hospital uses the Lean Process as their preferred tool for eliminating waste and improving productivity. Greater efficiency means increased employee satisfaction, improved finances, and most importantly, enhanced patient care.
The Lean Process
The Lean Process was first developed and implemented by car manufacturer Toyota back in 1945. The idea behind Lean principles is to work with continuous improvement to achieve efficient processes in production, transforming waste into value from the customer’s perspective. In short, doing more with less.
The Lean Team at Miami Children’s Hospital has implemented successful process improvements in both the clinical and operational environment which has produced significant savings by reducing operational costs and avoiding unnecessary capital investments. Moreover, they provide education and mentoring of staff at every level of the organization, ensuring a sustainable Lean culture.
“Lean requires the discipline of accepting that processes drive care”, explains Miami Children’s Hospital President/CEO Dr. M. Narendra Kini. “Having accepted that in the culture, we’re going to take it to the next level”. The hospital, which already has several specialty programs ranked among the best in the nation in the 2012-13 rankings by U.S.News & World Report, has developed its own variation of Lean, called “Lean Next”*, which focuses on building Lean methodology around communication.
Here’s a video I produced which further illustrates the utilization and benefits of the Lean Process at Miami Children’s Hospital. If you would like to learn more about Lean principles or how your healthcare organization can benefit from Lean, please feel free to contact Lean@mch.com.
[youtube width=”580″ height=”326″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU_8zH9La8k[/youtube]
*Lean-Next is a trademark of Miami Children’s Hospital
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