Lean management for more efficient and effective processes in healthcare
The pressure on healthcare workers is partly due to the COVID-19 outbreak hogthere than ever; er is a shortage to healthcare providers and there is by means of COVID-19 a peak, but also An structural increasing demand for care. What can be done to (partially) reduce this pressure? Thereby becomet also the high administrative beburdening of health care providers mentioned as a bottleneck. How can we reduce these administrative burdens? The use of lean management, in which continuous improvement is central, can be the answer to both questions. In this insight, we briefly take you through what lean management is and how it can be applied in healthcare.
lean management
lean management direct zich on creating the highest possible value for the customer, while minimizing waste in the process, in other words: working as efficiently and effectively as possible. Thanks to the use of lean management, the processes in an organization are continuously improved. This starts with addressing the problem and recognizing the associated process. On the basis of a value stream analysis all steps of the process are mapped out and any waste upwards. By taking a closer look at the process and ‘superfluous‘ steps to eliminaten, the process is organized more efficiently and effectively.
Lean management in care
Lean can also be used in healthcare management making processes more efficient and effective. Think about this for example to improve patient and client satisfaction, the optimizing schedules and Heyt optimizing the ratio primary tasks and secondary tasks from healthcare providers. So is a frequently heard 'complaint' from the caregivers that they spend a lot of time on secondary activities, as completing patient or client files, preparing reports and consultation orf Handover. The time spent on this, is at the expense of the primary task, which is to provide care. By using lean management here and thus analyze, Can it be checked whether this is a 'waste'? and can it be removed.
For example, what does the whole process of nursing a patient look like? Are there steps in this process that a nurse takes that have no direct added value? Are there steps that can be arranged in a different way, for example by moving them to an employee? for whom this work more be a primary task than for the nurse? By looking at all processes in this way and eliminate any unnecessary steps, expires the process more efficient and effective, making it total process adds more value for both patients and healthcare workers and the healthcare institution. A result of a process improvement could be, for example, that there less time is becoming spent on the administrative burden and more time left for the provision of care, which means that more patients can be treated and also waitlijstand will decrease.
By applying the lean philosophy, suggestions for improvements are not only brought forward from administrative level, but Is the it is precisely the intention that all employees think along and present their ideas for opportunities for improvement, off the balle employee on receipt up to and including the treated specialist and the care. By letting people put forward points for improvement for their own work, they get the possibility to improve their own work, wat will motivate them to commit to this.
In order to continue to stimulate the use of lean management, it is important to to make results transparent. This is not only about the financial side, but also the perspective of the patient and the employee: what to see she from the results achieved through the use of lean manage? how you thethey results insightful can to make, do you read here.