Healthcare Value Network Members Cost and Quality Results
Posted on by John Toussaint
Does Lean work in healthcare? The following reports of improvements from around the country, some in peer reviewed journals and others published by the individual organizations show the answer is a resounding yes!
Here are a few of the highlights but dig deeper into the work in this attachment and be shocked at why more healthcare organizations aren't transforming themselves using this clearly defined methodology.
The following results are only a few of thousands of improvements made by these organizations and others who are committed to the use of the manufacturing derived quality improvement methodology described as lean. For more results please consult the appendix attached to this document.
Akron Children’s Hospital: Has applied Lean Six Sigma to enhance the voice of theirpatients and families, empowering their staff and clinicians to eliminate activities that do not add value to the patient experience, allowing for a greater focus on delivering high quality patient care. From January 2009 to March 2011, ACH has reduced costs by over $8 million and reduced appointment access waiting times by a total of 74,608 days.
Group Health of Puget Sound: Developed a patient centered medical home applying lean principals to create the new process of care. They achieved 29% fewer emergency room visits,6% fewer hospitalizations and a $10.3 per member, per month savings after 21 months.
Gundersen Lutheran: Improved their breast cancer screening, diagnosis, biopsy and treatment. Their new interdisciplinary approach resulted in a reduced patient call back rate for unnecessary biopsy from 10% to 5% and a 35% reduction in cost in patients requiring breast biopsy.
Henry Ford Health System: Hospitals’ aggregate inpatient harm rate has dropped almost 25% since the start of the No Harm Campaign. Identified measures of harm include but are not limited to patient falls, pressure ulcers, medication harm, procedure harm, and employee injuries, Using standard improvement tools Henry Ford has decreased the harm rate by 90 events/month even while adding a new hospital and increasing the total number of patient days. The total estimated cost of harm in 2009 was $39,910,375 or $916 per admission. This represents 8.7% of all costs associated with treating inpatients in 2009. Through the intense improvement efforts of the No Harm campaign in 2010, total costs were reduced to $34,465,612, a $4.4 million dollar improvement with a cost-savings of $85 per patient.
Inova: Using employee driven kaizen (change) in nine Inova Inc. emergency rooms throughout Northern Virginia, patient's who left without being seen dropped from 2% to .48%, waiting time decreased by 31%, time to see the doctor dropped from 55 minutes to 22 minutes. This reduction in waste led to dramatic improvement in patient satisfaction (see appendix) and ten million dollars in improved operating margin.
Mercy Hospital in Mason City Iowa: A lean implementation team redesigned the lab process, consolidated redundant equipment, and redesigned lab personnel’s roles achieving a 53% faster turnaround time for patient blood test results, $470,954 in annual cost savings and $70,000 in construction avoidance.
Seattle Children’s Hospital: Has used their Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) methodology, based on Lean and Toyota methods, to reduce waste in a scientifically rigorous manner, improve service quality, clinical access, patient safety, staff engagement and financial results. Quality improvements include a 66% reduction in TPN medication error rates, a 50% reduction in ICU bloodstream infections, and 20% fewer ventilator days for patients. They have avoided $200 million in capital costs by using CPI to increase capacity in lieu of building additional patient rooms and ambulatory services space. They have also reduced patient costs by 3.7% and supply expenses by $2.5 million.
ThedaCare: Using lean tools and principals redesigned inpatient care and created a multidisciplinary team which has resulted in zero medication reconciliation errors for 4 years in a row and a 21% reduction in cost ($1200 per case) of inpatient care while at the same time reducing readmission rates to fewer than 12%.
University of Michigan: Using rapid improvement teams to reduce waste and delays in reduce waste and delays in red blood cell (RBC) dispensing and administration the reduced expense associated with RBC administration by $200,000 per month while reducing unnecessary transfusions for patients.
To read the full report, click here - Double Win Examples from HVN Members
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