: Dr. A.Satyanandini (Professor & HOD, Management Studies &Research Centre, BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore)

Transcription

1 Name of the Candidate Name of the Guide Research Centre : Mrs. Jayasree Radhakrishnan : Dr. A.Satyanandini (Professor & HOD, Management Studies &Research Centre, BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore) : Management Studies &Research Centre, BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore Year of Registration : 2009

2 LEAN IMPLIMENTATION IN HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY A CASE STUDY OF HOSPITALS IN BANGALORE CITY Introduction Providing best in class quality of service is of great strategic importance in the management of any service organization. Besides ensuring excellent clinical care, health care providers should also focus on other supportive areas which are also substantially contributing for the creation of quality services. So it is an urgent need for the health care industry to adopt and practice suitable service quality improvement tools for creating and delivering sustainable quality services to the customers. Creating and keeping a sustainable competitive quality services to the clients is one of the major challenges facing by the health care providers. Health care providers must work towards establishing a strong competitive position to understand how their customers perceive value in the services rendered. Implementation of lean principles is one of the best alternative to understand analyze and enhance service quality. Lean A fusion of Japanese and US management principles focusing on the reduction of waste (non value added steps in activities), inventory and customer response time for improving quality and create value for the customers. John Krafic a Massachusets Institute of technology (MIT) researcher in late 1985 coined the term Lean Manufacturing. The MIT study examined the methodology developed at Japanese auto giant Toyota under the direction of production head Taichi Ohno. Ohno turned to Henry Ford s classic book Today and Tomorrow for inspiration, one of the Ford s guiding principles had been the elimination of waste in processes. Ohno revisited Ford s original thinking and through a series of simple innovation made it more possible to provide both continuity in process flow and wide variety in product offerings. Thus Toyota Production System was evolved. Lean in service industry Lean management principles are developed from Toyota Production system (TPS) and have been successfully applied in many sectors to reduce waste and improve efficiency. While health care and manufacturing are very different fields, they both require the efficient integration of people, process and technology. The process and sequence may differ, but lean principles work anywhere and can significantly contribute to service transformation. One of the greatest benefits of lean versus previous improvement models in health care is its focus on removing waste in processes and systems through rapid change and employee involvement. The core idea of lean involves determining the value of any given process by distinguishing value added steps from non- value added steps and eliminating waste so that every step adds value to the process.

3 Lean is all about doing more with less while improving quality, client satisfaction, costs and speed of reaction to clients needs. Lean when applied culturally and technically will allow any organization in health care to provide better service to patients without increasing costs, space or adding any capital equipment. With lean the entire organization understands what is value and non-value from the perspective of the client and they know exactly how to remove the non-value activities properly to create a future state which is truly value. When applied rigorously and through out the entire organization, lean principles can have a positive impact on productivity, cost, quality and timely delivery of services. The additional improvements are reduced stress levels of staff plus groups working together on a vision of a future state. Need for the study Healthcare sector in India is witnessing a radical change in terms of its operations, expectation from customers and application of new technology and methods of medical treatment. India is also becoming a destination of health travel and attracting patients across the world. The major challenge to the industry is to ensure world-class operations of hospitals for meeting the requirements of its customers. All organization including health care organizations are composed of services which consists of processes or sets of actions, intended to create value for those who use or depend on them (customers/patients). One of the immediate needs of this sector is to analyze these processes and understand it in detail. This can be done by many ways using different tools applicable to many industries. One of the most common tools for process improvement is lean methodology and it is found to be successful in reducing waste in processes and creating value for the customers. Scope of the study Health care organizations in India are still in a primitive stage to adopt and translate the best global practices to improve service quality. So it is necessary to develop improved service models for meeting global standards to satisfy various stake holders. This study is an initiative to adopt one of the best global practices for process improvement that is lean methodology which is found successful in many other business sectors. Statement of the problem Health care organizations are integrated system of various functional units. The study is identifying and addressing the problems of certain areas where implementation of lean is the best alternative. Prolonged waiting time, increased turn around time, inconsistency in reporting, misplacement of reports and records, inadequate work place design, excessive delay between steps, are the general problems which lead to dissatisfaction with quality of services and poor public image.

4 Out patient scheduling procedure, medical record department, emergency services, and insurance claiming process are some of the functions where lean principles can be specifically applicable to improve the efficiency. Based on the observations on the existing process and evaluation of value of each process, a new value stream can be proposed to improve efficiency. A measurement system can also be suggested to understand the improvement. Lean activities like Plan - Do Study Act, Re organization of process and staff, Kaizen events, 5 s system for efficient work place organization, visual controls, more efficient communication, standardized staff roles, spaghetti diagrams and work place analysis, improved department lay out can be applicable to improving productivity and quality of processes. Objectives of the study 1. To identify the possible applicable areas of lean implementation in hospitals. 2. To asses the need of an improved service quality, through customer s perspective. 3. To assess the level of awareness among the employees regarding the implementation of a process driven service quality improvement tool. 4. To arrive and suggest a conceptual model of lean implementation for health care industry. Research methodology The primary data will be collected through observation, personal interview, and questionnaire. The sample design will be non probability sampling. The population includes customers/ patients and employees working in different levels. The source of secondary data will be books, journals, articles, research papers published by various associations and scholars, and various related websites. Based on the nature of the data collected through the above mentioned data collection method adequate statistical tools can be used. Limitation of the study The study will be conducted in hospital which is having more than 150 beds. The study results will be based on data collected from hospital located in Bangalore. The study will be addressing the problems of certain areas where lean implementation is the best alternative.

5 Bibliography Womac James P., Jones Daniel T. and Roos Daniel (1991). The origins of lean production, The Machine that Changes the world: The story of lean production, Harper Perennial Education publication, Womac James P. and Jones Daniel T. (1998). Lean Principles, & Lean enterprise, LeanThinking Banish waste and create wealth in your corporation, Simon and Schuster, , Levinson,William A and Rerick Raymond (2002). Lean cultural transformation, Lean Enterprise: A Synergistic Approach to Minimizing Waste, American Society of Quality, Eisert & Sheri (2006). Applying lean Toyota production system methods to improving health care systems, all academic research journals; Inaugural conference of American society of health economics. Mike Rother and John Shook (2003). Getting start with lean,learning to See, Value stream Mapping to create Value and Eliminate Muda,Lean Enterprise Institute, Graban Mark (2008) Observing the process and value streaming, Lean Hospitals : Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Satisfaction, Productivity Press Various websites of Lean thinking in health care Transformation, Institute of Health care Improvement and Health care Performance Partners. Prepared by: Mrs. Jayasree Radhakrishnan