Process improvement in the operating room using Toyota (Lean) methods

Six practices of the lean operating room.

Using Lean strategies to improve operating room efficiency.

Efficiency improvement in the operating room.

BACKGROUND In the changing health care environment, health systems, hospitals, and health care providers must focus on improving efficiency to meet an increasing demand for high-quality, low-cost health care. Much has been written about strategies and efforts to improve efficiency in the perioperative periods, yet the time when the patient is in the operating room-the intraoperative period-has ...

Lean, six sigma and lean sigma: fads or real process improvement methods?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore if six sigma and lean are new methods, or if they are repackaged versions of previously popular methods – total quality management (TQM) and just-in-time (JIT). Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a critical comparison of lean with JIT and six sigma with TQM, a study of the measure of the publication frequency – the number of aca...

Lean process improvement in outpatient healthcare systems

This paper considers the migration of lean process improvement methods from hospital systems to outpatient clinics. We review the strengths and weaknesses of a series of lean projects that were conducted in a community mental health center over a four-year period. We consider the evolution of the organization’s lean approaches and project results to identify areas of continuing research that ap...