NE Fla. health care providers cut waste – Jacksonville Business Journal:
Here's a nice upbeat article about some lean healthcare progress in Jacksonville, including our good friend, Dr. Sami Bahri, the “World's First Lean Dentist.”
I like the intro of the article:
Doing a job inefficiently out of habit is a pain for almost all businesses, and health care is no exception. But lean principles are turning up in your dentist's office and hospital emergency rooms.
It then highlights how “common sense” helps eliminate waste for the benefit of patients (less waiting time, fewer errors, and money saved). This is done with the heavy involvement of front-line staff, utilizing their ideas and creativity.
There are some improvements at the different organizations, including:
- Reduced patient waiting time
- Increased patient throughput
- Reduction in supply expenses
- Improving lab turnaround time
- Reducing construction costs
- Reduced over-ordering of IVs (eliminating the waste of throwing away the excess).
That last example saved $500,000 in one year at Baptist Health. Impressive. Jacksonville is quite a lean city, with their Jacksonville Lean Consortium. Lean has even gotten into the Sheriff's Department, if you remember my podcasts with a former Sheriff.
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