LEAN techniques

Increasingly, centers of healthcare are adopting a LEAN mindset – focusing on improving quality of care and patient safety, obtaining faster results and reducing staff workload – all while improving cost effectiveness

The articles on this page showcase the potential of LEAN strategies.

"ED leaders should determine on-time performance rates for emergent patients and develop specific goals and plans for improvement."

• Percentage of US emergency department patients seen within the recommended triage time: 1997 to 2006
  Horwitz, LI and Bradley, EH. Arch Intern Med 2009 Nov 9; 169:1857
  
  
• Trends in ED Wait Times by Triage Class. Increasingly, EDs fail to provide care within the target time for their sickest patients
  J. Stephen Bohan, MD, MS, FACP, FACEP.
  Published in Journal Watch Emergency Medicine November 13, 2009

"POC testing can be utilized as a successful LEAN strategy to reduce length of stay."

• Decreased patient charges following implementation of point-of-care cardiac troponin monitoring in acute coronary syndrome patients in a community hospital cardiology unit
  Apple FS, et al. Clinica Chimica Acta Volume 370, Issues 1-2, Pages 191-195, August 2006
  
  
• Point-of-Care Testing Reduces Length of Stay in Emergency Department Chest Pain Patients
  Singer, et al. Annals of Emergency Medicine Volume 45, Issue 6 , Pages 587-591, June 2005
  
  
• Implementation of a point of care satellite laboratory in the emergency department of an academic medical center: impact on test turnaround time and patient length of stay
  Lee-Lewandrowski, et al. Arch Pathol Lab Med, 127:456-60, 2003

"POC testing, when used as an integral part of overall process change, can actually ease pressure on staff, improve efficiency and most importantly improve the quality of care provided to patients." 

• Lean as a Learning System in a Hospital Ward
  Ballé M, Reigniér A, 2007
  Inspired by LEAN, French Hôpital Nord 92 put key principles behind the theory into practice to carefully build a dynamic learning environment for staff and management. This impacted not only nursing practice, but also the hospital at large.