Opportunities for Patient Safety Improvement using Lean

Abstract

Lean involves structured methods and techniques that solve problems causing waste in a system. Organizations that implement lean principles can reduce waste with ongoing process improvement. This can result in a better quality of care, reduction of medical errors, and increased patient safety. In this paper, we focus on the evaluation of applying lean in the healthcare industry to improve patient safety. The application of lean for patient safety improvement is still a relatively unexplored field. Yet, studies have shown that there lies potential in applying this concept to improve the safety and quality of care for patients. Lean can facilitate finding potential waste and patient safety risks that require quantitative analysis to classify and mitigate. However, applying lean without considering what challenges might arise and how to face such challenges may be the recipe for failure. Therefore, utilizing the benefits of lean and tailoring its opportunities to fit the healthcare industry’s challenges is crucial for a successful application. This paper can be valuable to providers for learning, investigating, and correctly adopting lean in the healthcare sector to improve patient safety.