Congratulations to Eric Dickson M.D. and the work he did at The University of Iowa (my alma mater) and now the work he is doing at U. Mass. The results he reports in this paper from The Annals of Emergency Medicine clearly shows that successfully applying the lean methodology leads to remarkable results.The interesting point is that senior leadership engagement and front line staff involvement in kaizen are necessary for gains to be sustained.At "Hospital C" where neither occurred length of stay and patient satisfaction actually trended toward worsening.At the other three hospitals there were significant improvements that were sustainable.
This article documents some of the core principles in a successful lean implementation: Engagement of front line workers in kaizen and continuous improvement, Leadership involvement,and measurement of results.This work is more evidence that a lean transformation plan can cure many of our patient's biggest frustrations.
lean ER Annals
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