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A Guide to Lean Healthcare Workflows

An IBM Redpaper publication

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Published on 26 August 2015, updated 11 October 2016

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ISBN-10: 0738454400
ISBN-13: 9780738454405
IBM Form #: REDP-5240-00


Authors: Jerry Green and Amy Valentini

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    Abstract

    Is Lean a fit for your healthcare organization?

    Various methodologies can be used to help organizations achieve their objectives depending on their criteria: lowest risk of failure, fast to resolution, or lowest cost for deployment. But what every organization should consider is which methodology will have the greatest impact.

    Lean, a systematic approach to understanding and optimizing processes, may be the fit for your organization. Learn more in this new IBM® Redpaper™ publication, A Guide to Lean Healthcare Workflows, by Jerry Green and Amy Valentini of Phytel (An IBM Company).

    The paper delves into the five steps of Lean:

    • Define value from the patient's perspective
    • Map the value stream, and identify issues and constraints
    • Remove waste, and make the value flow without interruption
    • Implement the solution, and allow patients to pull value
    • Maintain the gain, and pursue perfection

    It describes each step in-depth and includes techniques, example worksheets, and materials that can be used during the overall analysis and implementation process. And it provides insights that are derived from the real-world experience of the authors.

    This paper is intended to serve as a guide for readers during a process-improvement project and is not necessarily intended to be read end-to-end in one sitting. It is written primarily for clinical practitioners to use as a step-by-step guide to lean out clinical workflows without having to rely on complex statistical hypothesis-testing tools. This guide can also be used by clinical or nonclinical practitioners in non-patient-centered workflows. The steps are based on a universal Lean language that uses industry-standard terms and techniques and, therefore, can be applied to almost any process.

    Table of Contents

    Chapter 1. Introduction

    Chapter 2. Defining the value stream from the patient's perspective

    Chapter 3. Mapping the value stream and identifying issues and constraints

    Chapter 4. Removing waste and making the value flow without interruption

    Chapter 5. Implementing the solution and allowing patients to pull value

    Chapter 6. Maintaining the gain and pursuing perfection

    Appendix A. Lean guide

     

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