ABSTRACT
The study targeted an elective surgery of a tertiary hospital, focusing on such problems as low efficiency of surgical process, long queue time of patients and serious overtime of medical workers. Lean thinking was called into play to define the value of surgical services, and identify various wastes in the process, for improvement recommendations. In an onsite survey, such tools as value stream mapping, fishbone diagram and operation analysis were used for analysis and improvement of the process at the levels of process analysis and operation analysis. These measures have made significant improvements in surgical process time, operation room hold-up time, nursing worker hold-up time and queue of patients.
ABSTRACT
The study targeted an elective surgery of a tertiary hospital, focusing on such problems as low efficiency of surgical process, long queue time of patients and serious overtime of medical workers. Lean thinking was called into play to define the value of surgical services, and identify various wastes in the process, for improvement recommendations. In an onsite survey, such tools as value stream mapping, fishbone diagram and operation analysis were used for analysis and improvement of the process at the levels of process analysis and operation analysis. These measures have made significant improvements in surgical process time, operation room hold-up time, nursing worker hold-up time and queue of patients.