Perfecting Patient Journeys

Judy Worth; Tom Shuker; Beau Keyte; Karl Ohaus; Jim Luckman; David Verble; Kirk Paluska; Todd Nickel

Healthcare in the United States, and around the world, is facing a crisis brought on by a combination of rising costs, lack of transparency and accountability, and preventable medical errors. Applying lean thinking to improve care is one way that healthcare organizations can engage employees in solving problems in order to deliver better and more efficient care.

PERFECTING PATIENT JOURNEYS is a guide for leaders of healthcare organizations who want to implement lean thinking. Readers will learn how to identify and select a problem, define a project scope, and create a shared understanding of what's occurring in the value stream. Readers will also learn to develop a shared vision of an improved future, and how to work together to make that vision a reality.

Over the past eight years, the authors of this book have helped healthcare organizations learn how to make real and sustainable change using the value-stream improvement method. Implementing lean thinking has helped healthcare providers develop an adaptive, problem-solving culture with stunning results:

• Reduced annual staff turnover by 20%
• Average length of stay (LOS) in a large emergency department was reduced by 30%
• The number of patients who left without being seen (LWOBS) dropped by 60% in the same hospital
• Customer (patient) satisfaction increased by 73%
• Operating room changeover time was reduced, which increased the number of surgical procedures performed by 20%

Rather than rely on huge training budgets or teams of consultants, the method described in this book focuses on solving real organizational problems, and helps healthcare organizations and those who labor within them to daily provide safe, effective, efficient, and timely patient care.