What is LEAN? Lean process improvements focus on the activities your staff is performing. Lean tools and concepts can be used in any setting to help improve processes, increase efficiency, reduce waste, increase revenue and, add overall value to the end user.
Lean is best utilized when it sparks a total change in culture, affecting not only the way people work but, more importantly, the way people think.
These philosophies help ensure that all processes are designed to allow employees to work smarter, not harder, with all steps adding value towards the end goal. In a world where people want to get a lot while having few resources, Lean offers a great way to maximize efficiency and productivity in any workplace. We help to create a positive culture change and continuous improvement.
Let us help your organization utilize Lean to improve processes in any of the following areas:
- Administrative functions – including scheduling, eligibility, client intake and discharge, filing and overall front office organization
- Patient/Client throughput
- Billing or Invoicing
- Payment Posting
- Working AR
- And many more!
What are the Eight Wastes identified through Lean?
- Over-Production – Doing more than is needed by the customer or doing it before it is needed
- Inventory – Excess inventory costs through financial costs, storage and movement costs, spoilage and wastage
- Transportation – Unnecessary movement of the product in the system
- Motion – Unnecessary movement by employees
- Waiting – Waiting for the next event to occur or the next work activity
- Defects – Time spent doing something incorrectly, inspecting errors, or fixing errors
- Excess Processing – Doing work that is not valued by the customer, or caused by definitions of quality not aligned with needs
- Human Potential – Waste and loss due to inappropriate utilization of resources, not engaging employees, listening to their needs, and supporting their careers
In most healthcare settings:
- 80% or more of the time spent in a healthcare process is waste.
- Most of the patient's time is spent waiting, moving, a test-and-treat cycle, and so on, with very little touch time with the patient. The process revolves around a stop and go mentality – where patients receive a value-added step and then wait and wait, then receive another value added step, then wait and wait, and so on.
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What is Lean?
Lean is a movement and a thought process that promotes change in any organization. Lean does not mean taking away valuable resources; instead, it means putting the right resources and processes in place to bring […]
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The 8 Wastes of LEAN
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We’ve talked about our Lean Services before on this blog, but for this installment we wanted to go a little more in-depth. Check out this short video below about just one of the many powerful […]
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