What are Lean Principles in Healthcare?

Lean methodologies have been used in almost every type of industry to help eliminate waste and improve efficiency. Today, lean principles are being adapted for use in healthcare and providing many facilities with a lot of great improvement opportunities. Learning more about how lean concepts can be used in the healthcare industry will give you a good framework of information that can be used to improve your facility.

In most industries, lean concepts work well because they focus on minimizing waste so that a facility can work more efficiently. This is a cause for concern for many people in the healthcare industry because cutting costs could potentially negatively impact the level of care that patients are receiving, which is unacceptable. Fortunately, when looking at lean principles in healthcare, the goal is to provide the best level of care possible in a way that is as efficient as possible.

These lean principles can result in improved patient care because there is less wasted time and money. These principals may, for example, help a facility determine which tests are best suited for which situations. Cutting out unhelpful testing will streamline the diagnosis of patients so that they can receive better care more quickly.

While healthcare facilities do need to take care to make sure that they are not sacrificing the quality of care for efficiency, lean principles help to find that proper balance. Learning more about what lean concepts are, and how they can be used effectively in the healthcare industry will help both employees and patients.