Case studies
The following case studies are examples of the outcomes achieved through members of our consultant group working with healthcare professionals in applying ‘lean thinking’ to their own environment.
QUEENSLAND EXAMPLE
Lean Healthcare consultants lead a workshop on Lean Healthcare Essentials Workshop for 30 executives along with two program cycles, each for 6 project teams and a 5S “War on Waste” day (lean thinking addresses the 8 wastes). The composition of teams varied and each team project was a different area of flow improvement and waste reduction.
Example Outcomes: All 12 teams demonstrated improvements consistent with or in excess of our guaranteed 1:5 cost to benefit ratio.
A few examples include:
1. Facility 1 released 4 hours ED consultant time/day.
2. Facility 1 ED & Respiratory unit reduced LOS for COPD patients and improved flow of ward transfer.
3. Facility 2 improved the percentage of stroke patients receiving swallow screening within 24 hours of ED presentation from 40 to 95%.
4. Executive team 1 reduced employee movement form processing from 86 to 8 hours.
5. Executive team 2 reduced outgoing corporate email by 30%.
6. Inventory savings delivered immediate cash benefits estimated well in excess of our fees.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA EXAMPLE
Lean Healthcare consultants lead a workshop on Lean Healthcare Essentials Workshop for multiple teams drawn from a variety of facilities. Again, team composition was multi-disciplinary and each team took on a different project. 6 teams of 4-5 people participated over 5 months.
Example Outcomes: Gains typical of our guaranteed 1:5 cost to benefit ratio were exceeded.
1. Facility 1 successfully improved the proportion of patients discharged by noon from 30 to 50% translating into less bed block and improved flow through ED (still being maintained). Another team also freed up in excess of 2 hours of both clinical and administrative time per day (more than a whole person) by altering the a long standing routine, delivering a significant resource boost to the facility.
2. Facility 2 ED reduced waiting time for Shortness of Breath patients by 4 hours – a very significant patient flow benefit when suffering this condition.
3. Surgical Team from Facility 3 improved the number of patients discharged by 12pm from 40 to 80% delivering significant improvement on flow from ED to discharge, reducing bed block and LOS (still being maintained).
SINGLE HOSPITAL EXAMPLE
This hospital sent a small team to a multi-location programs to participate in a program with teams from other facilities conducted by two of our consultants.
Example Outcomes:
This team, following the program of 3 workshops with supported coaching, achieved a sustained reduction in daily theatre cancellation due to bedblock from 4 or 5 per day to virtually 0 per day.
The elimination of wasted clinical time, theatre staff and nursing time, administration time for their organization and eliminated bed occupancy, as well as the benefits to patient care were all outstanding.
In addition, they were also able to reduce hospital bypass from 76 hours per year to less than 10 hours per year. Every one of those hours eliminated represents a saving in time wasted by healthcare professionals managing bypass cases, being made to bypass and travel further as well as the internal time at multiple levels spent in frustration at handling bypass. Furthermore, they achieved a 30% reduction in turnaround times for urgent bio chemistry speeding up the flow of care delivery, reducing rework in care delivery and improving the quality and safety of care being delivered.
Their total investment was less than $16,000 – an investment recovered in waste elimination many times over within a few months of the program.
NATIONAL EXAMPLE
After initially sending a few teams to public programs, the government healthcare executives decided to take a whole of organisation approach which included executive planning workshop plus 12 teams. Consultants at Lean Healthcare Consultants conducted the lean training and coaching program and several 5S war on waste workshops. The program achieved very significant benefits.
Just two example outcomes:
1. District wide reduction in LOS for 65+ patients awaiting rehabilitation from 23 to 19 days. Over the entire district and the course of a full year, the flow and waste elimination benefits were very, very large.
2. Reduction in length of stay of knee replacement patients from 14 days to 6 days delivered further, very significant flow and waste elimination benefits. (more insight available on request).
The value of the resources freed for redeployment from just the two examples (on many achieved by the teams) illustrates the extent to which benefits can be very, very large. Extrapolated over a whole of enterprise approach, tremendous system gains are achieved.