Title: The need for implementing lean in healthcare organisations

Authors: Adriana Giraldo; William M. Mothersell; Jaideep Motwani

Addresses: Chevron CNEAP, San Joaquin Valley Business Unit, 9525 Camino Media, Bakersfield, CA 93311, USA ' Seidman College of Business, Grand Valley State University, L. William Seidman Center 3075, 50 Front Ave. S.W., Grand Rapids, MI 49504-6424, USA ' Seidman College of Business, Grand Valley State University, L. William Seidman Center 3075, 50 Front Ave. S.W., Grand Rapids, MI 49504-6424, USA

Abstract: For change to take place within a healthcare setting, hospital's administrators and practitioners will need to develop cognitive pathways in order to recognise the direct relationship between poor procedural systems and practitioners' reactionary measures. In this paper, we illustrate, by means of four case examples, how hospital administrators and practitioners should shift their efforts towards the implementation of a holistic approach such as lean methodology to develop, deploy and implement sustainable continuous improvement processes. The results of the case examples clearly illustrate that the benefit of such changes outweighs the burden currently placed on the US healthcare system.

Keywords: case examples; lean implementation; healthcare organisations; hospitals; healthcare management; sustainable improvement; continuous improvement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2015.071240

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2015 Vol.16 No.2, pp.211 - 230

Published online: 18 Aug 2015 *

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