Thanks to a new supply system instituted by the Seattle Children’s Hospital last year, the hospital is experiencing improved efficiency and overall better patient care. Their approach utilizes practices made famous by Toyota and others in the automotive and aerospace industries.
Kaizen is the term that defines the approach the hospital uses. Its purposes are to reduce waste and to increase the value of care for patients through continuous small improvements. Automotive and aerospace industries have been using kaizen methods for years. “It turns out the highest-quality care is also the most cost-effective because we make fewer mistakes and create better outcomes,” says Patrick Hagan, president of the hospital.
The program adapted from kaizen and applied to Seattle Children’s is called continuous performance improvement. It examines every aspect of patients’ experiences at the hospital, from their arrival in the parking lot until they are discharged, to see what could be improved for them and their families.
So many other hospitals have called Seattle Children’s for advice that the hospital put together a two-day workshop, attended by approximately 200 medical workers and healthcare leaders from the United States and Europe. Implementing the techniques of Seattle Children’s in several other hospitals has proved to be difficult. The process takes a great deal of time and demands a culture shift that many hospitals are not able to accommodate, said Mark Graben, a senior fellow at the Lean Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit research, education, and publishing company.
In a typical workshop at Seattle Children’s, a group of doctors, nurses, administrators, and representatives of patients’ families work through the program’s methods stretched out over a 40-hour week. They imagine some of the many situations in which a patient may be placed, like filling out forms, interacting with certain members of the staff, having to walk varying distances, or having to wait for assistance. Then methods are devised to improve or even eliminate those situations, therefore providing more efficient, patient-friendly services.
By using the same efficiency techniques as companies in the automotive and aerospace industries, hospitals like Seattle Children’s are paving the way for better, more cost-effective healthcare throughout the United States and Europe.