Q1) How Lean has Improved Overall Healthcare.
Based on the interviewees' sentiments, lean has led to improved healthcare provision, which has positively impacted the financial outcomes. When the organization first implemented lean in 2001, the board agreed that they would not measure ROI for the year. The organization believed that by incorporating quality and safety initiatives, the finances would increase in tandem (Furman, 2016). As such, the organization did not invest any new capital, space, or full- time employees to achieve its objective. Instead, the organization used the old investments to sustain a continuous improvement culture across all departments in the organization.
Q2) Any limitations in lean being used in healthcare.
No, lean can be used to improve the safety and quality of care in all healthcare departments. The interviewee described how the organization has benefited from incorporating lean in various units such as finances, reducing turnover rates, enhancing talent development, and balancing the roles between leaders and followers (Furman, 2016). For example, during a Rapid Process Improvement Workshop, the gastrointestinal team saved 2 million dollars by increasing care quality. In primary care, the organization has successfully reduced waste by seeing more patients within a shorter time period. The number of assistants has been reduced to one assistant for every two or three executives in the administration. Also, through the implementation of the Patient Safety Alert System, the number of malpractice claims has drastically reduced.
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The incorporation of lean has also reduced the turnover rates in the organization. Additionally, lean has enhanced talent development where one audiologist was transformed into a project manager. Talent development enables healthcare workers to practice what they were taught in school as opposed to engaging in other tasks (Furman, 2016). Moreover, talent development reduces the turnover rates as more professionals invest their time and energy in taking care of patients. Lean has also enabled leaders to frame problems and incorporate the employees in solving these issues. Besides, the leaders prioritize the most important quality improvement initiatives, develop the process of improvement, incorporate the team members and remove any barriers that team members may face.
Reference
Furman, C. (May 24, 2016). How can lean improvement work engage staff and reduce costs? Virginia Mason Institute. https://www.virginiamasoninstitute.org/how-can-lean-improvement-work-engage-staff-and-reduce-costs/
