Introducing Lean Process to Deliver Faster TAT in Hospital Laboratory in Qatar

Introduction

A lean lab design as known by many aims at making sure that the turnaround times and makes sure that services are delivered in a quick manner. This lean service is offered by bioMerieux together with the Guidon performance solutions. These services apply the lean processes in the biometric lab when trying as much as they can to make sure that services are offered in a quick manner (Zeeneldin and Taha, 2014). The introduction of lean services requires that an individual takes keen observation of the lab in a period of three to five days in the lab's current state, this involves the physical state of the lap as well as the manner in which samples are processed in the laboratory. The deliverable is a directory which indicates the procedures which can be used to indicate how the lap processes are done in an effective manner that is capable of making sure that wastage is minimized effectively and efficiency is improved. At the same time with the introduction of lean processes, errors are minimized thereby leading to an increase in the quality of the results being delivered at the same time. Lean process has been applied in the past whereby businesses have applied the lean process and come out with indicated that the workflow that was experienced was better, the turnaround times (TATs) as well as the patient results at the same time had become dramatic.

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The Significance of Healthcare Evaluation

Evaluation of service delivery is a significant endeavor in the entire healthcare sector. Service delivery evaluation in the healthcare is important in a manner that in the real world it is increasingly being used. The led nurses in the present day are using the healthcare evaluation strategy because it is highly accompanied by a lot of positive outcomes. Nurses are the once who are placed in a strategic place where they are capable of evaluating practice and service delivery (Stotler and Kratz, 2012). The importance of healthcare evaluation is to make sure that the involved staff knows that the service being delivered to people is the same as the once being thought of learning institutions. Healthcare officers need to determine the manner in which they can be in a position to make their policies work in their favor. Therefore all they need to do is make sure that the healthcare sector is well structured and maintained. Therefore it implies that the primary importance of healthcare evaluation id to determine the quality of services being delivered.

Healthcare evaluation is important to various sectors because when the overall hospital management wants to make decisions on their programs, they can be in a better position to make decisions which are sound as they are looking forward towards implementing those decisions (Quetz et al. 2015). For instance, when the lean process will implement it will require that the current system is evaluated. Evaluation of the lean program after being implemented is a very strategic endeavor because it can help in bringing about the identification of required strategies for the healthcare increase in service delivery.

Evaluations done regularly in the health sector are in a position to increase the effectiveness of the management sector as well as the manner in which programs are being been being run especially lab programs so that time taken in the entire process can be minimized. Therefore the application of lean process requires that TAT process being implemented in the laboratories works effectively towards making sure that what is expected to be achieved which is faster service delivery and effectiveness is obtained and monitored. The evaluation takes place between programs and parts which have been implemented or being looked forward towards being implemented thereby effectively retrieving the required information to be used towards attaining the required goal.

Methods and Measures Planned

Before implementing the lean process, measures of evaluation have to be done in order to make sure that the change project has been implemented. The measures, in this case, include the measures of the indicators of turnaround time through data collection from the laboratory information the (LIS). This information may be obtained from the Qatar public hospitals. Based on information from the laboratory information system, the author developed a spaghetti diagram and a value stream map of the laboratory process (Quetz et al 2015). Spaghetti diagrams indicate the movement path in a laboratory showing all processes that the specimen takes from receipt into the lab to results leaving the lab. Similarly, the value stream map of the specimen flow focuses on the lean system and indicates the value added by each process in the flow thus indicating the wasteful processes in the process map. (See appendix A for flow diagrams of the two analysis tools).

Before the model evaluation the measures which are planned start by the establishment of a laboratory team for the implementation of the lean project. This will ensure the provision of relevant skills and competence that will result in a reduction of turnaround time by 30%, which will consequently reduce the waiting time of patients' lab results to 30 minutes in a span of three months.

Secondly baseline measurements of the key performance indicators, which include TAT, which provides for measurement of statistical parameters like that of mean, percentile, and standard deviation. It observes STAT and routine specimen. This will be established by the analyzer and time segment. It provides one with the knowledge for pre-analytical TAT as well as determines the management of workload through time configuration ( Stotler&Kratz, 2012).Patient wait times would be measured by evaluating the production time through assessing all the analyzers as well and the employed modules to establish the number of samples processed over 30 minutes. This will involve distributing the process and analyzers into groups to determine how the specimen is being processed.Clinic flow will be measured through utilization analysis which features on the effectiveness of the analyzer and modules (Stotler&Kratz, 2012).It leads to the identification of service improvements as it enables the technicians to make real-time decisions for ensuring the considerable improvement of services thus increasing the clinical flow. The last measurement which will be done before the measurement is finished will measure the distance traveled by staff which will be measured by the efficiency of the lean system in sample processing.

After the evaluation, the first measure will be looking into analyzing the current spaghetti diagrams and value stream map to identify wasteful processes and develop a plan to eliminate or change these processes. The main laboratory steps that the researcher will include in the analysis for current state map are the specimen collection and delivery, accessioning time, testing time, test order entry, and reporting (Hawkins, 2007).

The final step is the comparison of the new state of the key indicators with the baseline measurements so as to evaluate the outcomes of the project, which will include if the waiting time of patients is reduced to 30 minutes, if the turnaround time is improved to 30%, if the clinical flow is improved by 20 minutes and lastly if the distance travelled by staff to complete laboratory processes is reduced by 40% within three months.

Objectives, Measurements, and Results

The primary objective of this study is to introduce the lean practices in the laboratory departments of the writer's healthcare organization. This study was accompanied by a set of objectives which aimed at making sure that the entire study was a success.

The first objective was to make sure that the turnaround time in laboratory services improved by 30 percent within three months.

The above graph indicates that in order to improve the turnaround time in laboratory services by 30 percent, it will require TAT practice be done in full amount. For example, it will require that full commitment to lean practice in place. Therefore from this graph, it is clear that the best way through which the turnaround time can be effectively attained is through the application of lean practice to its full utilization. Turnaround time in the laboratory managed to increase by 30 percent because of the application of lean practices. This is because lean practices are in a position to make sure that all the laboratory operations are done in time as well as effectively. When they are done in time and the workers reporting time is in the right time, it means that the TAT time with the application of lean practices managed to increase by 30 percent over a period of three months.

One can make a conclusion from this graph that lean practice is a very important factor to be looked at when improving turnaround time in laboratory services because within a period of three months it is capable of coming up with a 30 percent increment. Therefore in simple words as proposed in the evaluation section above is that laboratory operators are well trained through being provided with the necessary skills which they may require so as to make sure that the turnaround time by 30 percent which will work simultaneously and reduce the time taken by patients to waiting time overlay by a margin of 30 minutes within a successful application of lean practices in the laboratory services for a period of three months daily. This implies that lean service if being applied in the laboratories for a period of three months consecutively it can result in the reduction in the total patient waiting time by 30 minutes.

The second objective of this study is looking into making an increase in the clinic flow by 20 minutes within the three months of operations. The increase in twenty minutes flow will be as a result of the application of lean practices within the three months consecutively each day. Therefore better application of the same is most likely to increase the clinic flow by 20 minutes in three months.

The graph above indicates that with the application of lean processes, clinical flow can increase at a constant rate when applied in a constant manner. The clinic flow is an indication of the effectiveness in the manner things are being done in the clinic. Therefore this graph indicates an increase in clinic flow by 20 minutes within a period of three months. From this objective one can conclude that the application of lean concept in significant in the manner that the efficacy of the entire clinic flow works to the favor of the clinic itself. Therefore the application of lean process should be encouraged as much as possible so that it can help in making sure that clinic flow in Qatar is faster compared to before thereby ensuring that there is efficiency and effectiveness in laboratory operations.

The next objective for the study required that the lean application in laboratory practices decrease patient waiting time by 30 minutes across all laboratory centers within three months.

The above graph has a negative gradient against time for patient waiting. It indicates the number of time patients has to wait for their turn to come for being offered services. Therefore it implies that the gradient of time being taken with the application of lean services is a negative gradient. The lean application makes laboratory operations a bit faster. Patient waiting time work directly proportional to lean practices. When clinic flow has increased it means that patients waiting time has reduced as well. Therefore when looking at the patients waiting time, one can conclude that the time taken by patie...