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Case for Change
Waste, redundancies, errors, and escalating costs are pervasive in many industries. The Japan-based Toyota Corporation developed the Toyota Production System (TPS) to tackle these problems within its organization. The tools and principles of the TPS helped increase efficiency, decrease resource waste, and improve quality. Eventually, American manufacturers began to utilize TPS to improve their own organizations. TPS, today better known as Lean, revolutionized the way manufacturers did business.
Others industries took notice of these rapid improvements in manufacturing and considered implementation within their sectors. Health care, in particular, lent itself well to Lean techniques. Implementation of Lean allowed providers to lower cost and improve the quality of care delivered to patients.
One of the early adopters, Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, reaped Lean benefits immediately after its 2002 implementation. The 350-bed hospital saved $6 million in planned capital investment, freed 13,000 square feet of space, cut inventory costs by over $350,000, reduced staff travel time around the hospital, and decreased infection rates. At the same time, the hospital greatly improved patient satisfaction.
Lean is a management strategy applicable to everything from automobile production to delivery of improved patient care. Its basic tenet is improving the processes by which an organization carries out its activities. When Lean principles are applied throughout an organization, involving many processes and the entire staff, the results can be astounding. Like Virginia Mason, Iowa hospitals who implement Lean can reduce costs, eliminate waste, and increase both patient and staff satisfaction.
Sources:
- Connolly, C. “Toyota Assembly Line Inspired Improvements at Hospital.” Washington Post, June 3, 2005, p A01.
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement. “Going Lean in Health Care.” 2005. Available at www.ihi.org.
View the IHC toolkits and their contents.
Resources for providers to ensure safe and effective long-term anticoagulation therapy in all care settings.
Information on how to deploy the NQF 30 Safe Practices.
Information that discusses how to better communicate medical information to patients.
Information on the monitoring and reporting of HAIs.
This process improvement method can help providers deliver more efficient care that saves resources and improves quality.
Details on the principles and components of a patient centered medical home, including the business case and how to become one.
Resources for providers to avoid adverse drug events.
Resources for the safe administration of narcotics and opioids.
Information and resources for providers in their efforts to assist patients with tobacco cessation.
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