Lean is far from a religion, panacea or way of life. Instead, lean is a set of tools and a mindset through which healthcare C-Suite executives and board members can ask: “What can we do to improve the quality, timeliness, and convenience of the services we deliver to patients, consumers, clinicians and employees?
The goal of lean thinking is simple: Embed continuous improvement into the healthcare organization, bolstered by two affirmations: “Lean is how this organization manages clinical, financial and operational performance. Lean is how we fulfill the organization’s mission, vision, values and strategic imperatives.”
By focusing on process—a series of actions, steps or tasks that bring about a result–C-Suite and board executives can generate quick wins and major improvements. Processes, after all, embrace every personal and professional activity–from delivering a patient’s breakfast or cleaning a work area, to revenue cycle, compensation, recruitment, assessment and talent management.
Thinking lean helps healthcare C-Suite and board executives generate answers to the following questions:
- What adds value in the eyes of patients, consumers, clinicians, employees, payers and vendors?
- How does work get done in this organization?
- How can we hone in on the root causes of errors, problems and crises?
- What does an ideal or optimal process look like?
- How can we help to improve performance?
- How successful are already implemented process changes?
Lean thinking is all about simplifying the work of healthcare and individual healthcare organizations. By practicing and promoting lean thinking, C-Suite and board executives can accomplish the following:
- Reduce or eliminate tasks that fail to add value, while automating repetitive tasks
- Make a process or experience more convenient, easy, intuitive and satisfying.
- Leverage talent within the ranks of executives, managers, employees, clinicians and community leaders.
Eliminating unnecessary tasks requires C-suite and board executives to first understand the needs of patients, consumers and other core constituencies. Value, after all, is defined from the perspective of the end-user—from the neurosurgeon, nurse practitioner or social worker, to the physical therapist, radiologist or 20-something parent.
Once C-Suite and board leaders identify process steps that add value, they can determine which steps the organization can eliminate without sacrificing quality, safety, efficiency, service or satisfaction.
All too often, healthcare organizations automate bad or ineffective processes without little appreciation of process roadblocks. The result: If a healthcare process was confusing or chaotic before automation, it will become even more confusing and chaotic after automation.
What does this mean? Healthcare C-suite leaders must insist on process re-engineering and streamlining before they invest in costly, superfluous or unnecessarily disruptive technologies. Even more important, the C-suite and board must promote the evolution of a lean culture.
Lean thinking is far more than added work, project-specific work or a method or set of tools to improve processes. Instead, lean think is a philosophy and approach for understanding how a healthcare organization accomplishes its work. Among the questions that C-Suite and board leaders must pose every business day are the following:
- How well do we include the voice of the customer—patient, consumer, clinician, employee, payer and vendor—in the design, delivery and improvement of services?
- How well do use and analyze data to validate assumptions and inform clinical and business decisions?
- How do we engage and empower customers to improve service efficiency and effectiveness?
- Do we set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals (SMART) goals to measure clinical, operational and financial performance?
- How do we hold C-Suite colleagues and others accountable for the fulfillment of promises and commitments?
- Do we continuously improve clinical care, operations and finances? Are we willing to experiment, innovate and learn from failure and success?
C-Suite and board executives can take both small and significant steps to help to help an organization meet its performance goals. Consider the following steps as you apply lean thinking to your organization:
Turn into a lean thinker and leader: Align the C-Suite’s words and actions with lean thinking and continuous improvement.
Dedicate resources: Make sure people have the resources they need, including time, to engage in lean thinking, innovation and transformation.
Build a problem solving culture: Help people understand how process contributes to problems. Make sure solutions are implemented, monitored, evaluated and made sustainable.
Reward high performers: Recognize, reward and celebrate people who practice lean thinking and management.
Curt Lucas is president and CEO of InveniasPartners, a Chicago-based healthcare C-Suite executive and board recruitment, assessment and talent management advisory services firm. For more information, see http://www.inveniaspartners.com or contact lucasc@inveniaspartners.com.