By minimizing waste and waiting times, the lean operational concepts and techniques serve to maximize value for patients. It places a strong emphasis on staff involvement, ongoing improvement, and consideration of the demands of the consumer.. All employees of the firm, from clinicians to operations and administrative personnel, continuously work to identify areas of waste and eliminate anything that does not create value for patients using lean concepts in healthcare. To make sure that the production team members on the assembly line always have the parts and tools they need to complete their tasks, Toyota has put all the systems and support personnel in place. If you visit one of their assembly factories, you can see this for yourself. Although patients are more essential, it can be argued that Toyota invests significantly more in its front-line staff than many hospitals do. Toyota enables team members to concentrate on their tasks and the truck in front of them, resulting in greater outcomes and overall happiness.

By minimizing waste and waiting times, the lean operational concepts and techniques serve to maximize value for patients. It places a strong emphasis on staff involvement, ongoing improvement, and consideration of the demands of the consumer.. All employees of the firm, from clinicians to operations and administrative personnel, continuously work to identify areas of waste and eliminate anything that does not create value for patients using lean concepts in healthcare. To make sure that the production team members on the assembly line always have the parts and tools they need to complete their tasks, Toyota has put all the systems and support personnel in place. If you visit one of their assembly factories, you can see this for yourself. Although patients are more essential, it can be argued that Toyota invests significantly more in its front-line staff than many hospitals do. Toyota enables team members to concentrate on their tasks and the truck in front of them, resulting in greater outcomes and overall happiness.

Organizations around the world are using Lean to redesign care and improve processes in a way that achieves and sustains meaningful results for patients, staff, physicians, and health systems. Lean Hospitals, Third Edition explains how to use the Lean methodology and mindsets to improve safety, quality, access, and morale while reducing costs, increasing capacity, and strengthening the long-term bottom line. This updated edition of a Shingo Research Award recipient begins with an overview of Lean methods. It explains how Lean practices can help reduce various frustrations for caregivers, prevent delays and harm for patients, and improve the long-term health of your organization. The second edition of this book presented new material on identifying waste, A3 problem solving, engaging employees in continuous improvement, and strategy deployment. This third edition adds new sections on structured Lean problem solving methods (including Toyota Kata), Lean Design, and other topics. Additional examples, case studies, and explanations are also included throughout the book. Mark Graban is also the co-author, with Joe Swartz, of the book Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Frontline Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements, which is also a Shingo Research Award recipient. Mark and Joe also wrote The Executive’s Guide to Healthcare Kaizen.

Lean healthcare is waste elimination in every service area with the goal of reducing inventory, cycle time of service, and cost, so that high-quality patient care can be provided in a way that is as efficient, as effective, and as responsive as possible while retaining the financial integrity of a hospital. The Lean philosophy in healthcare demands a person’s attitude, in all aspects of care, understand the process which happens, observe it, and gather information in order to identify the root of an inefficiency of the process. In short, Lean and its emphasis on efficiency can be a critical tool in the management of health services in hospitals around the world. This book provides guidance and examples on how Lean principles can be implemented into the infrastructure and every day operations of a hospital from the emergency room to hospital facilities and maintenance. The book also demonstrates how Lean is the cultural commitment of organizations to implement the scientific method in designing, conducting, and improving work sustainably through teamwork, bringing in better value and satisfaction to the patient. It shortens the time between ordering and service delivery by eliminating waste from the service flow value. The author uses numerous examples of Lean thinking in various hospital departments with the overall of goal of taking that department from good to great.

Instead of building new hospitals that import old systems and problems, the time has come to reexamine many of our ideas about what a hospital should be. Can a building foster continuous improvement? How can we design it to be flexible and useful well into the future? How can we do more with less? Winner of a 2013 Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence! Answering these questions and more, Lean-Led Hospital Design: Creating the Efficient Hospital of the Future explains how hospitals can be built to increase patient safety and reduce wait times while eliminating waste, lowering costs, and easing some of healthcare’s most persistent problems. It supplies a simplified timeline of architectural planning—from start to finish—to guide readers through the various stages of the Lean design development philosophy, including Lean architectural design and Lean work design. It includes examples from several real healthcare facility design and construction projects, as well as interviews with hospital leaders and architects. Check out a video of the authors discussing their book, Lean-Led Hospital Design at the 2012 Med Assets Healthcare Business Summit. www.modernhealthcare.com/section/LiveatHBS

Healthcare leaders around the world are facing tough challenges, including the need to deliver better value for patients and payers, which means improving quality while reducing cost. It might seem impossible to do both, but organizations around the world are proving it's possible, through Lean. Health systems are able to enhance all dimensions of patient care, including both safety and service, while creating more engaging and less frustrating workplaces for healthcare professionals and staff... all leading to improved long-term financial performance. Building on the success of the first two editions of this Shingo Prize-Winning book, Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement, Third Edition explains how to use the Lean philosophy and management system to improve safety, quality, access, and morale while reducing costs. Lean healthcare expert Mark Graban examines the challenges facing today’s health systems, including rising costs, falling reimbursement rates or budget constraints, employee retention, and harm to patients. The new edition of this international bestseller (translated into eight languages) begins with an overview of Lean methods and mindsets. It explains how engaging staff and leaders in Lean practices such as value stream mapping and process observation can help reduce wasted motion for caregivers, prevent delays for patients, and improve the long-term health of your organization. In addition to a new introduction from John Toussaint, this updated edition includes: New and updated material on identifying waste, A3 problem solving, employee idea management, kanban for materials management, and strategy deployment New case studies and examples—including a new 5S case study (Franciscan St. Francis Health) and other case examples highlighting the challenges and successes of an academic medical center and a small urgent access hospital, featuring quotes and stories from executives New examples and updated data throughout, including revised chapters on patient safety and patient flow challenges and the improvements driven by Lean Detailing the mindsets and methods needed for a successful transition to a Lean culture, the book provides the understanding of Lean practices—including value stream mapping, standardized work, error proofing, root cause problem solving, and daily improvement processes—needed to reduce common hospital errors and improve performance in other dimensions. The balanced approach outlined in this book will guide you through the process of improving the quality of care and service while reducing costs in your hospital. *The Lean Certification and Oversight Appeals committee has approved Lean Hospitals as recommended reading for those in pursuit of Lean Bronze Certification from SME, AME, Shingo Prize, and ASQ

The United States has the highest per capita spending on health care of any industrialized nation but continually lags behind other nations in health care outcomes including life expectancy and infant mortality. National health expenditures are projected to exceed $2.5 trillion in 2009. Given healthcare's direct impact on the economy, there is a critical need to control health care spending. According to The Health Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes, the costs of health care have strained the federal budget, and negatively affected state governments, the private sector and individuals. Healthcare expenditures have restricted the ability of state and local governments to fund other priorities and have contributed to slowing growth in wages and jobs in the private sector. Moreover, the number of uninsured has risen from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million in 2008. The Health Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes identifies a number of factors driving expenditure growth including scientific uncertainty, perverse economic and practice incentives, system fragmentation, lack of patient involvement, and under-investment in population health. Experts discussed key levers for catalyzing transformation of the delivery system. A few included streamlined health insurance regulation, administrative simplification and clarification and quality and consistency in treatment. The book is an excellent guide for policymakers at all levels of government, as well as private sector healthcare workers.