Lean process, big results
Published Monday October 19th, 2009
The provincial government must find ways to manage health care on a sustainable basis. It also must address persistent complaints about waiting times and concerns about hospital working conditions. The likeliest way to do so is through efficiency - and the Department of Health seems prepared to apply lessons learned long ago in the private sector.
The department is preparing to launch a pilot project employing "Lean process," the management efficiency initiative which helped Toyota to become the world's largest automaker. The goal is to deliver process improvements that allow provincial nurses to spend more time with patients and less on administration or wasted effort.
Hospitals don't seem to have much in common with auto plants. But on a very basic level, they do: each requires a team of specialized staff to work in an organized fashion in a purpose-built facility. How much work each team can perform consistently and reliably depends upon how the workplace is organized, from the utilization of the equipment to the demands on the workers' time.
The New Brunswick Nurses Union is supportive of the pilot project because Lean process has been used successfully in other health care systems, from the United Kingdom to Saskatchewan. Provided administrators and employees engage in the process with an open mind, it is a time-tested way of finding and eliminating inefficiencies.
The Department of Health has sought to improve efficiency in other ways. It has assigned the management of support services to a separate corporation and consolidated regional health authorities in a bid to reduce duplication. But it still needs to raise the operational efficiency of hospitals. Process improvement methods such as Lean are valuable tools, and the department should be applying these tools to more aspects of the health care system.
Consider the utilization rate of diagnostic imaging. CT scanners and MRI machines cost a great deal of money and become obsolete at the same rate regardless of how often they are used. It does not make fiscal or medical sense to use this critical equipment just part of the day, when hospitals could be assessing patients 24-7. Applying Lean methodology to the diagnostic process might help government increase the rate at which these machines are used, reduce the waiting lists and ensure that patients get the treatment they need in less time.
Minimizing wasted time and lost investment can help hospitals maximize patient care. Ultimately, that is the objective New Brunswickers want government to achieve.
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Comments (7)
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The equipment needs people to operate it. The general public, AIMS, adn many others insist NB has too many government employees and needs to reduce to be more efficient. Just two years ago then Min. Murphy floats the idea of "renting" out space and equipment to private interests to do diagnostics.
Private health care anyone?
But back to the same problem ... it takes people to operate the equipment. Only now, it is compounded. Wait times get longer unless you have the money to pay for the service.
Want to up the utilization rate ... then hire the people to do so ... and keep access away from the wallet.
We see this in the private sector where companies grow and grow until they grow bankrupt. I am told that of public companies existing in 1925 only two are left and one is General Motors. In the public sector, bankruptcies don't