So you're "doing lean?"

The possibilities for improvement in healthcare are seemingly endless, not to mention they’re undoubtedly necessary, and a lot of organizations are looking to lean as their improvement methodology.  In the healthcare industry today, healthcare costs are on the rise, reimbursement rates are on the decline, and payment reform is here. But what does that really mean? What it means is that Hospitals will soon be expected to care for patients in a low cost - high quality environment, with patient outcomes being more indicative of their reimbursement rates than the type of care that was received. Unfortunately, the majority of “lean” healthcare organizations do not align their improvement efforts with those changes. Too many high level employees, on too many committees, with too many objectives. A lot of large healthcare organizations don't even say "goals" anymore, they say "Strategic Objective" because by not saying goal, they don't have to be specific.


Its all about right-size countermeasures. Don’t initiate improvement projects and call it “lean” just for the sake of saying you’re “doing lean”. Lean is a business system which needs alignment throughout the entire organization with clear (SMART) goals, so that whatever we are trying to improve, it is the right thing and the most important thing.