It seems every day a new story showcases outstanding results from a Lean transition in a hospital or clinical setting, which has recently been implemented to empower medical professionals to perform at his or her best.
For instance, a Canadian hospital cut the time it took for heart attack patients to receive angioplasty from 90 minutes to 37, just by learning from Lean that it was unnecessary to have two separate, similarly qualified doctors make the same diagnosis.
Why does Lean work so well for healthcare?
The automotive manufacturing industry, where Lean originated, is based on a large group of competent professionals, each doing a small and highly specialized task to ultimately produce an incredibly complex final product.
Likewise, healthcare consists of diverse and highly competent specialists, each fully aware of his or her duties and well trained in performing them, but potentially less aware or even mistrustful of others in the process. (more…)
