Process Redesign for Health Care Using Lean Thinking: A Guide for Improving Patient Flow and the Quality and Safety of Care

Process Redesign for Health Care Using Lean Thinking is a response to a simple, but hard to answer, question and is the result of the experiences of a working doctor who was also the chief safety and quality officer of an Australian teaching hospital. At this hospital, he observed that the Emergency Department was staff by talented, well-trained, and respected doctors and nurses. The facilities were modern, and the work load unexceptional, but the department was close to melt down. Bad things were happening to patients, everyone was blaming each other, lots of things had been tried but nothing was getting better and no one could explain why. The problem was not a lack of technical knowledge or expertise, the problem was that no one stood back and said, "what’s the best way to move 200 or 300 patients a day through the complicated and varying, sequence of steps needed to sort out the many different problems that bring patients to our department?" These challenges are faced by hospitals and health services all over the world. There are difficulties with patient flow, congestion, queues, inefficient utilization of resources, problems engaging clinical staff in improvement programs, adverse incidents, and budget constraints. Lean thinking and value stream analysis gives hospitals and health services struggling with these issues the insights they need to help themselves. This book provides a method that systematically turns those insights into working programs of service and system redesign. The book is divided into two sections. The first section gives the background to the approach, and systematically works through the Process Redesign methodology, step-by-step. The second section is a series of case studies that show the methodology in action, what worked and what didn’t work. The goal of any process redesign is simple: the right care, for the right person, at the right time, in the right place, and right the first time. This book helps the people who work in hospitals and health services realize these goals by working together.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Process Redesign – the complete method Chapter 1: Introduction: An accidental redesigner Why redesign? Learning about Lean A decade later Chapter 2: Craft, Flow, Mass British manufacturing: the extension of the craft work system The American method of production Moving to mass Chapter 3: Taiichi Ohno and the Birth of Lean Toyota and Taiichi Ohno Waste and flow Push and pull Workers as problem solvers: the challenge for managers Chapter 4: The Principles of Lean Thinking The process viewpoint: the golden thread of Lean The Lean principles Principle 1: specify value from the standpoint of the end-customer Principle 2: identify the value stream for each product family Principle 3: eliminate waste and make the product flow Principle 4: so that the customer can pull Principle 5: as you manage towards perfection Chapter 5: Healthcare is not manufacturing The Lean principles are very important – but Placing an order: customers and raw materials Redesign double vision Complicated: or complex and adaptive? Chapter 6: Knowledge work Knowledge work Knowledge workers own their knowledge capital Design Or Redesign Chapter 7: Redesigning care: authorization, permission, teams and governance Authorization and permission The redesign team Governance The workgroup and the improvement event Chapter 8: The virtuous circle of Process Redesign and the A3 Chapter 9: Identifying the problem Primary purpose, problems and concerns Problem statements What kind of problem, and where to start? Chapter 10: Defining the scope The benefits of starting with scope Scope and scoping: an evolving task Chapter 11: Diagnosis (1) Mapping – the Big Picture The process of Big Picture Mapping: a social intervention Setting up and undertaking a Big Picture Mapping Chapter 12: Diagnosis (2) Direct observation External or internal redesign capacity? The structure of the learning to see phase Tracking patients or tracking specific process steps Analysis Chapter 13: The real problem (1): Identifying the real problem Root cause analysis, the five whys and effect-and-cause analysis Chapter 14: The real problem (2): Measurement Measurement for redesign-types of measurement The basic triad of analysis design Measurement focus: releasing time or improving outcomes (or both) Measuring processes or outcomes Chapter 15: Goals, the scientific method and the future state Experiments and the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle Goals Chapter 16: Value stream, batching and flow improvement Making the process viable Splitting into value streams Flow Takt time Batching Improving flow: eliminate, combine, reduce, simplify Chapter 17: Targeted interventions – 5s, visual management and visual systems 5s Visual management The ideal visual management system Chapter 18: Queues, prioritizing, capacity and demand Acknowledging Erlang – the Calling population Queue discipline – First in, first out Queue discipline: planned work, short term queue, shortest service time Capacity lost, demand moves forward Queues and priorities Analysis of capacity and demand Exponential growth in queue length Impossible jobs Chapter 19: Embedding and sustaining Measure, monitor, evaluate A formal decision to adopt the new way The front-line manager A culture of continuous improvement Part 2: Case Studies Chapter 20: Case Study 1: Redesigning Emergency Department flows The problem Scoping Diagnosis The real problem Intervention ED works Evaluation Embedding and sustaining Chapter 21: Case Study 2: The Care-After-Hours Program The problem Authorization and permission Scoping Diagnosis Four major-work streams The real problem Intervention The Electronic Medical Task Board Evaluation Embedding and sustaining Continuity of information Chapter 22: Case Study 3: Visual Management The Patient Journey Boards Scoping Diagnosis-tracking The real problem Intervention Evaluation Discharge traffic lights and blue dots Chapter 23: Case Study 4: Redesigning podiatry care The problem Diagnosis The real problem Interventions Evaluations Chapter 24: Conclusion – Redesigning Process Redesign