With a national shortage of nurses, it makes good sense for medical facilities to streamline tasks so as to accomplish the most in the least amount of time.
Department heads at Lenoir Memorial Hospital are attempting to do just that by systematically sifting through each area and process.
Through the Carolinas Rural Hospital Lean Culture Transformation Collaborative, LMH received an $87,500 Duke Endowment grant to focus on eliminating waste and creating efficiency, Derek Vestal, Lean coordinator at LMH, said.
“Operating within the constantly-changing environment of healthcare,” he said, “LMH will use Lean principles to ensure resources are being utilized efficiently to provide the best possible experience for our patients and staff.”
A hospital’s goal is, after all, to provide quality healthcare for patients.
“Anything we do to improve our process allows us to have more time with the patient,” Elaine Penuel, director of in-patient nursing, said. “The patient is our focus.”
The streamlining process originated through the manufacturing procedures implemented at Japan’s Toyota manufacturing facility and was later developed for a number of other industries, including healthcare.
Simpler provides consulting by a sensei, the Japanese term for the person who provides training, coaching and mentoring at facilities that are implementing the Lean Transformation system.
The company works with a variety of industries in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and developed a Lean model for military branches in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, according to its website.
“We’ll be working very closely with (the sensei) through the whole three-year process,” Penuel said.
LMH has six “rapid-improvement events,” or intense reorganization efforts, planned for the first year, starting out with the medical and surgery in-patient units.
The first of these weeklong events began April 1 in the surgery unit and focused on storage and ordering of supplies, Penuel said.
All staff who deals with those aspects in that particular unit were involved in the RIE. Through the week, employees learned new policies and procedures that will continue to be carried out and revamped, as necessary.
“We saw results during the week that we did it,” Penuel said, emphasizing that there had always been organization to the hospital’s procedures, but the RIE provided visible transformation.
In about 90 days, another weeklong RIE will take place in another in-patient unit. Other RIEs will be held during the second and third years. Meanwhile, smaller team projects will be taking place, and all of the newly-created policies and procedures will continue to be maintained and upgraded, as needed, Penuel said.
The idea is to identify waste of time, motion, transport, over- and under-supplies of inventory and human potential, she said.
It will be a never-ending process. After three years, LMH staff will no longer use the consulting service, but will have learned how to transform their processes to the point where they will be able to continue improving efficiency as the departments and their technology and systems change.
Vestal said the focus isn’t about saving money, but efficiency will, no doubt, provide cost savings, as well as increase face-to-face time with patients.
“Through process redesign,” Vestal said, “we create efficiencies within the hospital that can increase quality, decrease cost, increase staff engagement and lead to an improved patient experience.”
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.
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For information about Simpler’s Lean Transformation system, visit simpler.com.