Beth Israel Deaconess has been working on lean for a number of years. They are redesigning care to focus on reducing hospital readmissions. Using lean tools such as value stream mapping and kaizen improvement teams they are identifying waste in the inpatient care delivery process and removing it. They have mapped each step in the process from when a patient enters the emergency room to when they are discharged. This understanding of the current state is a critical first step in improving care however, very few hospitals actually have done this.
Congratulations to the Beth Israel Deaconess team for the award. We look forward to learning from one of the true innovators.
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