Two individuals who have studied “lean healthcare” provision in Japan, subsequently successfully applying the key principles at a $650 million Seattle tertiary healthcare centre, are joining Manchester’s Manufacturing Institute to apply the “best practice lean methodologies” they say have “revolutionised” the US healthcare industry to UK hospitals.
Outcomes included infection rates “cut to almost zero”, over 13,000 ft2 of space freed up, staff walking reduced by 50 miles a day, and “vastly improved” patient satisfaction.
Christina Saint Martin, who has moved to Manchester to spearhead the new service, is the former Virginia Mason vice-president, while former president Michael Rona, reportedly the US’s leading lean healthcare expert, will spend one week each month as a Manufacturing Institute consultant.
Christina Saint Martin said: “While a growing number of NHS managers and clinicians understand the basic concepts of lean, nobody has taken this powerful methodology all the way. With challenging patient waiting time, environmental performance and infection control targets, alongside the drive to balance budgets and achieve Foundation Trust status, the NHS has an opportunity to transform itself beyond recognition.”
The Manchester Manufacturing Institute’s lean healthcare team has already achieved successes in partnership with UK hospitals. For instance, when it helped University of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust apply “lean” at Lancaster Royal Infirmary, it found “duplication of effort, overstuffed filing systems, badly-designed working areas and wasted internal capacity”. Lean techniques have reportedly resulted in easier, quicker retrieval of medical records, more patients being seen, and fewer missing notes.
