Lean, Sigma, Kaizen - will they work for healthcare?
The HIMSS sponsored Journal of Healthcare Information Management ( J Healthc Inf Manag.) has, in its 2005 Winter issue, a very interesting article by Bahensky et. al. about Lean techniques, Sigma concepts and the use of the Kaizen breakthrough methodology in the healthcare environment.
The authors concluded that those methodologies could be advantageously applied to healthcare institutions:
"The manufacturing industry has been using Lean Sigma for years in pursuit of continuous improvement to obtain a competitive advantage. The objectives of these efforts are:
- Use the Lean techniques for reducing cycle times;
- Use the Six Sigma concepts for reducing product defects;
The Iowa Business Council with several advocates worked with the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics (UIHC) and two other Iowa hospitals to determine whether Lean Sigma is adaptable in healthcare.
A team of 15 people at UIHC used the Kaizen Breakthrough Methodology over a five-day period in an aggressive identification and elimination of non-value added activities in Radiology CT scanning.
The results exceeded the initial project objectives and indicated that:
- Lean Six Sigma is applicable in healthcare.
- the Lean Six Sigma project increased revenue by approximately $750,000 per year.
- The Kaizen process proved to be successful and interesting.
- Within three days, the team installed new work flow processes.
This Implementation-Oriented Approach is what differentiates Lean Six Sigma from other Quality Improvement processes."
The article is indexed at PubMed as: 'Lean sigma - will it work for healthcare?'.