Lean manufacturing means ‘keep it simple’
Lean manufacturing means keep it simple’
Because concepts from other industries can sometimes seem a bit obscure to the health care professional, this real-life synopsis of the use of lean manufacturing techniques (eliminating waste, or extra steps, in a process) at Doctors Hospital in Columbus, OH, may help illustrate how the approach can be applied practically in the ED. It involves the process of sending an ED patient to radiology.
Before, if a patient needed X-rays, the ED would put an order into the computer system and then wait for a phone call from radiology saying they were ready to take the patient, recalls Karthik Venkataraman, management engineer with Ohio Health, parent organization of Doctors Hospital. "At that point, an ED staff member would put a tag on the board showing that the patient needed an X-ray, and then someone would call radiology back," he says.
The process involved what would be called in lean manufacturing terminology a lot of "non-value-added" steps. "We did a study, which showed that most of the time radiology was ready to take an ED patient," says Venkataraman. "Now, whenever a patient needs an X-ray, they just take the patient over to radiology without all those phone calls back and forth."
Sources/Resource
For more information on re-engineering an ED, contact:
- Marci Conti, RN, MBA, Vice President of Operations, Chief Nursing Officer, Doctors Hospital, 41 High St., Columbus, OH 43213. Phone: (614) 298-6695. E-mail: [email protected].
- Tom Chickerella, CPIM, Vice President of Process Excellence, Ohio Health, 1087 Dennison Ave., Columbus, OH 43201. Phone: (614) 544-5424.
- Karthik Venkataraman, Management Engineer, Ohio Health, 1087 Dennison Ave., Columbus, OH 43201. Phone: (614) 544-5424. E-mail: [email protected].
For more information about the Arena software program, contact:
- Rockwell Software, The Park Building, 504 Beaver St., Sewickley, PA 15143. Phone: (412) 741-3727. Fax: (412) 741-5635. E-mail: [email protected]. On the Arena Web site (www.rockwellautomation.com/simulation) you can sign up for demos of the software.
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