Improving access to health services – challenges in Lean application

Abstract

Purpose: Healthcare organisations face significant productivity pressures and are undergoing major service transformation. This paper serves to disseminate findings from a Lean healthcare project using a NHS Single Point of Access environment as the case study. It demonstrates the relevance and extent that Lean can be applied to this type of healthcare service setting.Design/methodology/approach: Action research was applied and Lean tools used to establish current state processes, identify wastes and develop service improvement opportunities based upon defined customer values.Findings: The quality of referral information was found to be the root cause of a number of process wastes and causes of failure for the service. Understanding the relationship and the nature of interaction between the service"s customer/supplier led to more effective and sustainable service improvement opportunities and the co-creation of value. It was also recognised that not all the Lean principles could be applied to this type of healthcare setting. Practical implications:The study is useful to organisations using Lean to undertake service improvement activities. The paper outlines how extending the value stream beyond the organisation to include suppliers can lead to improved co-production and generation of service value. Originality/value:The study contributes to service productivity research by demonstrating the relevance and limitations of Lean application in a new healthcare service setting. The case study demonstrates the practical challenges of implementing Lean in reciprocal service design models and adds validity to existing contextual models.

Study on Techniques and Tools Used in Lean Healthcare Implementation: A Literature Review

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State of research and future research tendencies in lean healthcare: a bibliometric analysis

“…The third tendency stems from documents about the proposal of new models and about the implementation of Lean Philosophy, as they express the need for validation and confirmation of their results on a larger scale (Aguilar-Escobar et al 2015;Daultani et al 2015;D'Andreamatteo et al 2015;Hicks et al 2015;Kanamori et al 2015;Savino et al 2015;Scavarda et al 2015). Some authors call for further development of ideas they proposed and for a deeper focus on challenges and unsuccessful aspects they encountered (Cheng et al 2015;D'Andreamatteo et al 2015;Kanamori et al 2015;McCann et al 2015;Noori 2015a). Holden et al (2015) ask for the explanation, prediction and replication of success instead of only conforming it.…”

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