Leveraging Lean healthcare to reduce ‘never events’

In the world of healthcare, “never events” are situations that are preventable and shouldn't generally occur. They include falls, infections, needless tests or treatments and other sicknesses or procedures that are entirely preventable with an attentive staff and doctors who know their patients.

Obviously, preventing never events should be the goal of any hospital staff as it improves the health conditions of patients. However, it also has a strong financial incentive as well. Medicare stopped paying for care provided for conditions the organization considered to be preventable, such as bedsores and pressure ulcers.

Lean healthcare can help ensure hospitals and private practices don't end up paying for these expenses on their own. For example, a Lean hospital will come up with a way to ensure workers have the time to reposition bedridden patients, thereby preventing bedsores from occurring.

With many healthcare organizations already having to deal with escalating operational costs, many are exploring means to reduce expenses. Lean healthcare has quickly popped up as the answer to many of these organizations' problems.