Hospitals are a key part of health care delivery system. They provide a variety of services ranging from outpatient treatment to admissions and rehabilitation. As a system, hospitals are intricate network of processes. Starting from the reception to the admissions and discharge office, the entire work is a series of processes. As a result of limited resources or large scope of service, hospitals tend to fall into repetitive procedures (forms to be filled in various places), wasted resources (more than required number of people speaking to the patients), and an overall confusion about the order of steps. These broken systems lead to problems with patient safety, increased cost and long waiting times.

These issues can be addressed with implementation of Lean Systems. Lean systems are often wrongly viewed as ‘cost cutting’ techniques. In fact, these are a set of tools which help organizations such as hospitals to adopt a culture to organize and manage their work.

Lean regards people as a valuable resource. Thus, as a system of management, Lean can help in better engagement of physicians and other employees to work together to deliver better quality of care. The benefits can, therefore, lead to reduction of errors and improvement of patient safety.

Implementation of Lean cannot be considered as a magical solution to problems. It is a simple system with simple procedures which, if followed thoroughly, can lead to amazing results. These simple sounding principles can pose a challenge in terms of implementation, hence the requirement of sound leadership (the Lean Leader).

The areas where Lean can help: