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Improving Care Delivery Through Lean: Implementation Case Studies

Exhibit 1.19. Major Factors that Inhibit Lean Success at LHC

Factor Lessons learned
Availability of resources
  • Lean events are time consuming for staff.
  • Staff turnover may make it difficult to maintain continuity on larger projects.
Resources
  • Lean is not being effectively used in the transformation to electronic health records and other electronic tools.
Engagement
  • If managers are not trained in Lean, it is difficult to get their support for a Lean project.
  • If staff do not see the applicability of Lean to the improvement project, it is difficult to engage them.
  • Except for salaried hospitalists and emergency room physicians, most other physicians—who are overwhelmingly community based—are hard to engage in Lean events.
Scope, coordination, and pace of Lean activities
  • Competing priorities and the need to address related issues can delay Lean projects.
  • Implementing an EHR prior to redesigning processes results in failure to realize the benefits of this electronic tool.


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Publication:
13(15)-0056

Page last reviewed November 2014
Page originally created November 2014

Internet Citation: Exhibit 1.19. Major Factors that Inhibit Lean Success at LHC. Content last reviewed November 2014. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
https://www.ahrq.gov/practiceimprovement/systemdesign/leancasestudies/lean-exhibit1-19.html

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