That Lean is a journey, not a destination, is the first thing Cynthia Moore-Hardy, FACHE, president and CEO of Painesville, Ohio-based Lake Health, and Gary Robinson, vice president of Lake Health's community affairs, would say, in regards to their organization's path toward more efficient operations. They discussed their organization's experiences with the method at Becker's Hospital Review's 5th Annual Conference in Chicago on May 15.
"It's not a quick fix and cannot be delegated," said Ms. Moore-Hardy. "For us, it represented a cultural transformation, focused us people and inverted the traditional leadership pyramid."
The independent community-based health system, in response to the rapidly consolidated east Ohio market, decided it needed to make a long-term change to improve quality, reduce costs and extend its focus beyond episodic care.
In particular, it has been successful improving operations in its emergency department. Mr. Robinson, the executive sponsor of value streams in the ED, said that through lean the ED wait times have been nearly cut in half.
"Once we identified where to begin and how to begin, we also decided to keep the process together [in the same hospital]. We thought there was a benefit to that, given the synergy between the ED and the med-surg floors," he said.
"Twenty-four months in, we've seen $6 million hard dollar savings, a 57% increase in the arrival process in the ED, and we have avoided $2.5 million in capital expenses because we improved patient flow," said Ms. Moore-Hardy.
She said employee engagement in the project is high, but that this is not something that happened without much effort. "Focus on the 'what,' get 100% commitment, identify gaps in care, focus on the process, and value creativity over capital," she said. "Above all remember: Hope is not a strategy."