Laboratory News

Hospital Industry Finally Yields to Lean, Six Sigma and other Factory Efficiency Methods

For years, many hospital administrators have pooh-poohed the suggestion that factory management methods long used with great success in manufacturing plants could be equally successful in hospitals.  So what a change it is to learn that American Hospital Association  (AHA) is talking with the National Association of Manufacturers  (NAM) about a national program specifically to bring factory management experts into hospitals to teach these methods!

What is even more astonishing is that the AHA and the NAM are calling this program a "Marshal Plan" to bring these manufacturing best practices developed to the hospital industry.  This metaphor is significant. Students of history will recall that the "Marshall Plan" was a vast, multi-billion-dollar reconstruction program funded by the U.S. government to provide the funds and technical assistance to get Europe back on its feet after World War II. 

The AHA is prepared to model its collaboration with NAM after the United Way's Loaned Executive Program, in which firms donate managers' time to raise funds on the charity's behalf.  In this case, nearby manufacturers would donate systems engineers' time to their local hospitals.  In turn, hospitals could help manufacturers, often the largest employers in a town or region, develop wellness and prevention programs.

For the program to be successful, business leaders and hospital administrators must be keenly aware of the nuanced differences between the two fields.  Virginia's Mason Medical Center in Seattle started applying Toyota's Lean method in 2002, and has sent 200 employees to Japan for training.  Since then, the 307-bed hospital has freed up 11,000 sq ft of space, saved $11 million in capital expenditures, and reduced laboratory result wait times by 85%, according to the hospital.

Of course, the manufacturing methods to be introduced into hospitals by this "Marshall Plan" exchange of industrial engineers centers around quality management systems such as Lean,  Six Sigma, ISO, and others.  It was laboratories which were among the first types of healthcare providers to embrace such quality management systems.  The Dark Report  has regularly covered instances of laboratories implementing Lean and Six Sigma methods to reduce waste and improve efficiency for years.  At the Executive War College and Lab Quality Confab  in 2007, conference attendees heard from numerous laboratory administrators on their successes.  

With the hospital industry's largest trade association, the AHA, now reaching out to the National Association of Manufactures to access the quality management systems expertise of industrial engineers, there should be no question in the minds of pathologists and laboratory managers that the era of Lean, Six Sigma, and ISO-15189  has downed in the American healthcare system.

The laboratory community should continue to lead healthcare in its embrace and use of Lean and Six Sigma to pursue increased quality, improved efficiency, and reduced waste.  Changes to laboratory work processes are often met by apprehension from employees accustomed to existing procedures, but the benefits make the effort worthwhile.  Hospital laboratories that have successfully implemented Lean and Six Sigma should continue to expect their Lean / Six Sigma teams to be heavily utilized across other areas of their hospital or health system as senior administrators deploy these techniques throughout the institution.

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 A new ‘Marshall Plan'  (Modern Healthcare Subscription Required)