Kaizen–Kata, a Problem-Solving Approach to Public Service Health Care in Mexico. A Multiple-Case Study

Lean healthcare aims to manage and improve the processes in the healthcare sector by eliminating everything that adds no value by improving quality of services, ensuring patient safety and facilitating health professionals’ work to achieve a flexible and reliable organization. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is considered the starting point of any lean implementation. Some papers report applications of VSM in healthcare services, but there has been less attention paid to their contribution on sustainability indicators. The purpose of this work is to analyze the role of VSM in this context. To do so, a scoping review of works from recent years (2015 to 2019) was done. The results show that most applications of VSM reported are in the tertiary level of care, and the United States of America (USA) is the country which leads most of the applications published. In relation with the development of VSM, a heterogeneity in the maps and the sustainability indicators is remarkable. Moreover, only operational and social sustainability indicators are commonly included. We can conclude that more standardization is required in the development of the VSM in the healthcare sector, also including the environmental indicators.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Value Stream Mapping in Healthcare Services: A Scoping Review

Marín-García

Vidal-Carreras

García-Sabater

2021

“…According to some authors [ 10 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], there are scarce references to adoption of the action research approach in the search for improvements in health services. This is because the literature mainly centres analysis on case studies (e.g., [ 4 , 12 , 13 ]). Other papers reflect on, synthesize and review the case studies, looking at them in terms of tools, adopted practices or activities, indicators, affected areas or departments as well as the results obtained (e.g., [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, more and more hospitals have redesigned their internal management with respect to processes, resources and objectives, gearing themselves towards more effective and efficient management, and indeed enhancing the quality of service. Academic literature shows cases where hospitals have achieved this thanks to the adoption of management approaches coming from industrial sectors which with minor nuances or differences among them seek improved efficiency and efficacy of processes and productive systems [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]; these approaches include continuous improvement, kaizen, total quality management (TQM), just in time (JIT), six sigma and, particularly, lean management. One key to success in the adoption of these approaches is for affected staff to participate directly [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Competitiveness through the Implementation of Lean Management in Healthcare

Prado

García-Arca

Fernández-González

et al. 2020

The main aim of this paper was two-fold: first, to design a participative methodology that facilitates lean management implementation in healthcare by adopting the action research approach; second, to illustrate the usefulness of this methodology by applying it to the sleep unit of a public hospital in Spain. This methodology proposes the implementation of lean management in its broadest sense: adopting both lean principles and some of its practical tools or practices in order to achieve competitive advantage. The complete service value chain was considered when introducing changes through lean management implementation. This implementation involved training and involving staff in the project (personnel pillar), detecting and analysing “waste” in value chain processes (processes pillar) and establishing control and measurement mechanisms in line with objectives (key performance indicators pillar) and putting in place improvement actions to achieve these objectives. The application of this methodology brought about an improvement in the management of patient flow in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and quality but also an internal transformation towards lean culture.

“…Continuing an ongoing academic trend [1][2][3][4][5], a body of work has focused on kaizen or improvement practices. Some of these are centered on healthcare settings [6][7][8][9][10][11], another article analyzes the relationship between kaizen and environmental management, the implementation of cleaner production and green practices [12], and one more analyzes the effects on sustainable product development [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empowerment and Employee Well-Being: A Mediation Analysis Study

Marín-García

Bonavía

2021

This study examines the relationship between structural and psychological empowerment and its effects on employees’ psychological, physical, and social well-being. Despite the quantity of previously published works, empirical evidence about these relationships in the workplace is scarce. We developed a mediation model in which structural empowerment predicts employee well-being via psychological empowerment. We based our study on the EU-27 data from the 6th European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). Data were collected from a questionnaire administered face-to-face to a random sample of employees and the self-employed representative of the working population in the European Union (number of valid responses in this study: 23,468). The effects of the relationships among the variables considered were evaluated using Partial Least Squares (PLS). Results indicate that structural empowerment was positively related to psychological empowerment, which was positively related to job satisfaction, work engagement, and social well-being. The expected relationships for work stress and physical well-being were not found.