The unique challenges of Lean in healthcare

Healthcare providers are taking inspiration from the manufacturing sector by adopting more sustainable practices and quality improvement programs to boost their bottom lines and expand patient care. Like Lean Manufacturing programs, hospitals and service providers are targeting processes with inordinate variability and replacing them with standardized procedures.

“The manufacturing industry has long realized that one of the causes of waste is variability,” wrote Saurabh Jha and William Boonn, of the department of radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. “Indeed, healthcare is borrowing conceptual models and science, such as Six Sigma, from the manufacturing industry to reduce or eliminate its own waste.”

But the comparisons between healthcare and manufacturing end fairly quickly, HealthImaging points out. While factory processes and equipment may be easily standardized, the same is not true for healthcare, where every patient is unique and must be treated as such.

Accordingly, researchers agreed that a balance between mandated procedures and individual judgment must be struck. Industry guidelines and Lean management strategies may help display boundaries, even if they can't cover every single scenario.