Page 25 - Cost

B. Lean Technique in Hospital sector- A Journey Ahead

Backdrop:

Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO, United States of America, used lean technique to speed
up stroke care. With the help of this technique, average time between patients arriving and
receiving clot-busting treatment dropped by 21 minutes. It would result to fast and efective
treatment and curtail brain injury probability rates afer stroke.

Objective:

Te objective of lean technique is to curtail the unnecessary wastage of time and motion. As a
result quality of service would enhance and cost per service would decline.

Methodology:

Using lean technique the hospital can identify unproductive steps such as inefcient patient
transportation, task performed at a time rather than simultaneously etc. because this technique
would facilitate to relook at what actions performed everyday.

It enables the competent authority of the hospital to formulate protocols of keeping only crucial
steps that would add up value to patients care.

Applicability:

1. Emergency Ward
2. OPD

Emergency Ward:

Oxygen cylinder, Blood, life saving drugs, medical equipments and laboratory test facilities to be
present at the bed side of the patients to get laboratory results within minutes, these moderations
would ensure rapid diagnosis and treatment available for patients as soon as they arrive at the
emergency department. As a result quality of service and the productivity of personnel would
improve and time per patient would reduce.

OPD:

Queue management is a must for OPDs. A trained nurse should be appointed for each doctor,
who would check the blood pressure, height and weight of the patients and arrange case report
for the doctor. Tis could reduce time per patient and doctor can treat more patient than before
as a result cost per patient would reduce.

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