DONT COPY AND PASTE SOMEONE ELSE ANSWER + DONT PLAGARIZE!!!!!!! SF General\'s in
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DONT COPY AND PASTE SOMEONE ELSE ANSWER + DONT PLAGARIZE!!!!!!!
SF General's initiative to adopt Kaizen to improve its operations and the challenges it still faces along its journey. Staff members at SF General employed Kaizen in areas such as reducing patients' average wheels-in to incision time to shaving average wait time in its Urgent Care unit. These improvement efforts, while commendable, did not eliminate errors completely. Ironically, around the same time Kaizen implementation at SF General Hospital was reported, another news broke about that SF General lost a female patient for two weeks, and she was eventually found dead in a hospital stairway.) answers to the questions below:
1.Why are hospitals, such as San Francisco General Hospital, adopting the ‘Toyota Way’?
Glossary Toyota's production system, which focuses on reducing waste and inefficiencies while making customers happier, has been increasingly adopted by hospitals trying to improve medical quality and increase patient satisfaction. Here are some of the system's frequently used Japanese terms, many of which do not have a direct English translation Gemba: the place where work is performed Hansei: a period of critical self reflection Heijunka: a level production schedule that provides balance and smooths day-to-day variation Jidoka: using both human intelligence and technology to stop a process at the first sign of a potential problem Kaizen: continuous improvement Kanban: a visual card or signal used to trigger the fulfillment of need, such as restocking supplies Muda: anything that consumes resources but provides no value Poke-yoke: a mistake-proofing device that prevents errors Source: Rona Consulting GroupExplanation / Answer
(1)
The 'Toyota Way' or the Toyota Production System was originally coined out to achieve lean production, people development, waste elimination, and manufacturing excellence through continuous improvement. However, these areas have been found applicable to service areas as well including the healthcare domain. There are several reasons, why a hospital would like to follow the principles of TPS.
First, in order to compete in its industry, a hospital must provide value to its patients. Note that the nature of the industry is such that common resources (such as physicians, nurses, and categories of equipment) promote the reduction of entry barrier. In such condition, it is essential to reduce waste by lean operations in order to keep the cost of operation low. This can help the hospital realize a cost leadership strategy. Typical waste reduction policies may include non-value-added time reduction in all the operations and inventory reduction of consumable items.
Second, the hospitals of today understand the impact of developing people and giving them ownership of their respective areas. Toyota's principle states that it is the people who will bring changes and make the system lean. Therefore, hospitals are imbibing these principles to develop their people, create a sense of ownership, provide required autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Finally, there is a great deal of focus on continuous improvement by pinpointing on the root cause(s). In a lean hospital, the management will look for the root causes associated with any change (positive or negative) and then will take appropriate countermeasure. The tactics and operational strategies thus derived at the foundation of this root cause analysis will provide the hospitals with a clear cutting edge over its traditional competitors.
(2)
In my opinion, Poka-Yoke or mistake proofing should be the best choice to eliminate/ reduce the chances of such incidents. many modern hospitals put smalls electronic chips (or RFID tags) on the patient's body (e.g. on the wrist). Patient's movement can then be monitored and recorded. So even if a patient is missing, he/ she can be tracked very easily. Note that the success of such arrangements depends on the robustness of the system the hospitals are following. For example, a hospital needs to have a preventive maintenance schedule for all these RFID tags and radar and all the tags must be registered so that they can be monitored. Developing/ training people to make use of such systems is thus also very crucial.
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