Effect of Lean method implementation in the histopathology section of an anatomical pathology laboratory

Raab, Stephen S.; Grzybicki, Dana M.; Condel, Jennifer L.; Stewart, William R.; Turcsanyi, Brian; Mahood, Laura K.; Becich, Michael J.

doi:10.1136/jcp.2007.051326

Cited by 53 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(21 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Other articles had an even narrower focus on only 1 process improvement project with only 1 or 2 outcomes in 1 area of a hospital or health system, such as magnetic resonance imaging examination time. 17,20,25,27,31,33,35,36,39,41,42,47 The average evidence score for these articles was 5.75, again suggesting that articles with a narrow focus present stronger in-depth evidence that SS/L can improve processes of care.…”

Section: Ss/l To Improve Processes Of Carementioning

confidence: 93%

“…Common process improvement projects included improving operating room (OR) throughput, 9,16,17,20,42 improving emergency department (ED) throughput, 21,28,30,38,40 reducing medication errors, 18,22,24,26,28 reducing patient wait times, 21,23,28,38 reducing other turnaround times (not OR or ED), 23,25,26,28,29,35,36,38,41,47 reducing other errors (nonmedication), 27,39 and following best practices of care. 9,31,32,33,38,46 …”

Section: Ss/l To Improve Processes Of Carementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another set of SS/L articles was focused on improving health system delivery efficiency and service by reducing patient wait times, 23,38 reducing other turnaround times (not OR or ED), 23,25,26,28,29,35,36,38,41,47 or reducing other errors (nonmedication). 27,39 SS/L tools were used to reduce turnaround times in clinical areas such as the cardiac catheterization laboratory, 26 26 and an obstetrics/gynecology clinic, 23 as well as nonclinical areas such as environmental services, 38 billing compliance, 38 and claims processing.…”

Section: Patient Wait Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Assessing the Evidence of Six Sigma and Lean in the Health Care Industry

DelliFraine

Langabeer

Nembhard

2010

Quality Management in Health Care

248

162

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Ss/l To Improve Processes Of Carementioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Ss/l To Improve Processes Of Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Patient Wait Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Assessing the Evidence of Six Sigma and Lean in the Health Care Industry

DelliFraine

Langabeer

Nembhard

2010

Quality Management in Health Care

248

162

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Fewer than 20% of all articles stated a project goal, and most of these were in qualitative or immeasurable terms. Common process improvement projects in healthcare settings included improving operating room (OR) throughput (Adams et al 2004;Does et al 2009;Fairbanks 2007;Leslie et al 2006;Van den Heuvel et al 2006), improving emergency department (ED) throughput (Ben-Tovim et al 2008;Christianson et al 2005;Dickson et al 2008;Johnson et al 2005;Kelly et al 2007), reducing medication errors (Buck 2001;Chan and Pharm 2004;Chassin 2008;Christianson et al 2005;Esimai 2005), reducing patient wait times (Ben-Tovim et al 2008;Bush et al 2007;Christianson et al 2005;Johnson et al 2005), reducing other turn-around times (not OR or ED) (Bush et al 2007;Chan et al 2005;Chassin 2008;Christianson et al 2005;Daniels 2007;Godin et al 2004;Gorman et al 2007;Johnson et al 2005;LeBlanc et al 2004;Raab et al 2008), reducing other non-medication errors Kang et al 2005), and following best practices of care (Drenckpohl et al 2007;Elberfeld et al 2004;Eldridge et al 2006;Johnson et al 2005;Neri et al 2008, van den Heuvel et al 2006). However, in these studies the outcomes were not stated as goals, and specific targets were not set prior to implementation.…”

Section: Application and Alignment In Healthcare Contextsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Implementation of Lean and Six Sigma quality initiatives in hospitals: A goal theoretic perspective

Langabeer¹,

DelliFraine²,

Heineke

et al. 2009

Oper Manag Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Organizational quality improvement practices have gained wide acceptance in manufacturing industries over the last several decades. A substantial number of books have been written on Lean and Six Sigma alone, which today are the leading improvement initiatives. The healthcare industry however has been slower to adopt these methods, although anecdotal evidence suggests they are now being gradually diffused throughout hospitals on an increasing basis. Yet, these new practices have been developed substantially without a theoretical foundation (Linderman et al. J Oper Manag 21:193-203, 2003) and the question of industry "fit" is the topic of debate for many physicians and administrators (Kassirer N Engl J Med 339: [1543][1544][1545] 1998). This article provides the descriptive results from our mixed methods research, combining survey questionnaire with semi-structured interviews, that examines implementation of two quality improvement initiatives (Lean and Six Sigma) in a cross-sectional sample of hospitals. We used correlations and non-parametric tests to examine relationships between goal attainment and quality management, and present descriptive findings about reported usage and adoption of quality initiatives. Importantly, we find that the efficacy of quality improvement initiatives in healthcare may be impeded by the lack of goal clarity and measurement. We build on these initial results by offering recommendations to improve results in practice, as well as an agenda for further research of quality initiatives in healthcare. The objectives of our research are to better understand how Lean and Six Sigma fit in the healthcare industry and to explore goal and value attainment from these projects.

show abstract

“…For example, lean techniques have been successfully applied to improve a histopathology department (Raab et al 2008). In health care, studies commonly use various lean definitions with a focus on the reduction of waste or the creation of value (e.g.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of lean interventions on time buffer reduction in a hospital setting

Roemeling

Land

Ahaus

et al. 2017

International Journal of Production Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper focuses on performance changes stemming from a series of lean interventions in a medical laboratory. This research is one of the first to link a series of lean interventions and performance over time. In a mixed-method case study, six years of patient-related throughput data, retrieved from a laboratory computer database, are analysed. Three distinct periods with significant differences in throughput time performance can be distinguished. Semi-structured interviews were held to investigate the lean interventions preceding the performance changes. Given the long-term nature of the study, the event history calendar method was applied to enhance the respondents' recall and reliability. A single lean intervention, among the hundreds that took place, was supposed to cause the main reduction in throughput times. It concentrated on improving process flow through the removal of batching, a source of artificial variability. A later major intervention, the introduction of flow-focused machinery, had mixed effects and initial performance gains were not sustained. The results show that ongoing series of interventions do not always lead to ongoing performance improvements in terms of throughput times but support theories emphasising the importance of variability reduction.

show abstract

Effect of Lean method implementation in the histopathology section of an anatomical pathology laboratory

Abstract: It is concluded that Lean process implementation improved efficiency and quality in the histopathology section.

Cited by 53 publications

References 20 publications

Assessing the Evidence of Six Sigma and Lean in the Health Care Industry

Assessing the Evidence of Six Sigma and Lean in the Health Care Industry

Implementation of Lean and Six Sigma quality initiatives in hospitals: A goal theoretic perspective

Impact of lean interventions on time buffer reduction in a hospital setting

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About