A Study On Lean Thinking Process Flow Improvement For Radiation Department

Background and objectivesWith the rapid development of the economy and further reform of the medicine system in China, the inner and outer environments of hospitals have experienced great changes. Causes to this includes many factors, such as the government's redefining the medical service, the expansion of the medical insurance coverage, the enlarged variety of the patients and higher expectation for medical service. Furthermore, hospitals call for updated knowledge and technology themselves, as a result of the fierce competition, and their changed position in doctor-patient relation.Presently, the check-in process in most hospitals in China, involving many departments, is very complicated. The patients, after queuing up times and again, become afraid of this process. Unless have to, they refuse to check in hospitals, especially the larger ones. In clinical, over a half of the patients ask the question "Where shall I take this examination?" Evidently, the check in flow of hospitals fails to catch up with the requirement of patients. The disorganized check-in process causes patients many troubles, and often triggers the doctor-patient disputes. Apparently, it's a top priority for hospitals to regulate their check in flow.Medical examination plays a part of great importance in diagnose and treatment. Modern medicine relies more and more on high-tech examinations, which, in turn, exert huge influence on the quality, as well as the efficiency of medical service.The subject of this research is the radiation examination department in a comprehensive hospital, where over-crowdedness is a common situation, as is in most its counterparts all over china. The research itself is an attempt to reform the department examination flow, with Lean Project Management, so as to enhance doctors' working efficiency and reduce patients' time in waiting, and better the medical service quality. As a discussion about whether Lean Thinking is appropriate in hospital flow management, this research also aims at providing a reform mode for other supporting departments.ApproachesThe first chapter of this paper summarizes the characteristics and problems in medical service flow management, and introduces the meaning and practical application of Lean Thinking. The second chapter applies Leaning Thinking into radiation examination flow, creatively. Then the third chapter, with tools of 5s analysis and value chain analysis in Lean Thinking, points out the core of radiation examination flow, and studies how to apply Lean Thinking in the flow reform. The chapter is chiefly about measures and suggestions to improve Lean Hospital Flow Management, offering a direction of further study.During the implementation of the reform, we have found the problems in the radiation examination flow as follows: low efficiency in categorization at the reception, waiting room in poor condition, disorder of the waiting queue, fluctuation in the working intension, and poor working environments for doctors. Among these problems, the key issues are disorder of the waiting queue, fluctuation in the working intension. With help from the director and members of the radiation department, our team collected statistics for the reform project. After analyzing the statistics and a brainstorm for solution, we designed a reform plan, changing the examination time of patients from four department from morning to afternoon. The project was started on 8th March 2008 and ended on 31st September 2008.ResultsThe achievements of the project include four aspects:â‘ The waiting environment has been improved and the waiting queue becomes orderly.â‘¡The average waiting time of each patient's is reduced from 92.9 minutes before the reform to 45.1 minutes presently.â‘¢The number of patients examined increased 18.8% compared with the same month last year.â‘£Doctors begin to work more efficiently.ConclusionThe flow reform in Nanfang Hospital, directed by Lean Thinking reform specialists and implemented by a trans-department team, has achieved its goals, including: reduced waiting time for patients, higher patients' satisfactory degree, increased examination number and rising revenue.The processes in medical service, unlike those in enterprises, are highly complicated and may vary according to different diseases and progress of the disease. And for this reason the Lean Thinking is seldom applied in medical service flow reform. However, by this project, we find that Lean thinking is not only suitable but feasible for hospitals as well, especially for medical tech departments.