“Our Nation’s health service delivery systems face growing challenges to enhance quality while reducing costs. Lean/Toyota Production Systems (TPS) is a process redesign strategy developed in manufacturing that promises to help health care delivery systems meet these twin challenges.” – Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.(1)
The High Cost of Inefficiencies
Process inefficiencies run deep in healthcare. Just walk into your doctor’s office, or local hospital, and you can see some of the inefficiencies rife within today’s Healthcare system. Think about the number of times you’ve been asked to fill out multiple forms, asking for the exact same information, even within the same hospital. This example is just one of many that the patient experiences and is merely the tip of the iceberg of inefficiencies. Some are driven by organizational culture and politics, some by regulation, and some by the departmental fragmentation that exists in any business setting.