Paper Example on Eliminating Waste in Healthcare

Introduction

According to the Oxford English dictionaries waste is the use or expend of something or resource carelessly, extravagantly and for the purpose not intended for. It goes further to define that garbage is the failure to make full or proper use of something. Therefore waste can be described as the use of time, equipment, energy and other resources that do not add value to the well-being of a patient. There are different types of waste, in this research seven types of wastes are discussed, and their major problem explained.

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Overproduction

Over the years overproduction has been the primary source of waste in the hospitals and other health providing institutions. The first problem of oversupply is wastage of money in purchasing resources that are already available in the hospital or resources that are not required. These resources may include medicines, machines, and personnel. This, therefore, led to wastage of money that could have been used in other urgent resources.

The second problem of overproduction is that it causes other forms of waste (Berwick &Hackbarth, 2012). When there is a production of more than is required the hospital team will try to manage the extras. This will involve moving, processing and storing the excess. In return, this moment will cause delay and waiting, defects of some resource and confusion resulting to other waste like waiting for time waste and movement waste.

The last problem caused by overproduction is that it slows down the process of service delivery. This usually happens when there is an overproduction of personnel in a particular field or place of service. This occurs because there is no clear guideline of who ought to do which work and therefore every person expects the other person to do it. While the workers do this, services are not delivered in time to those who require it.

Waiting Time

The second type of waste that is seen in hospitals is waiting time. This typically happens when the patients have to wait in long lines before they receive service. One of the significant problems caused by waiting time waste is that patient have to wait for a long time before receiving services. This may make the patient ailment to worsen leading to more complications. The wait is also emotionally, financially and logistically burdensome to the patient who has to wait for more than 12 hours to be able to see their doctors (Berwick &Hackbarth, 2012).

The waiting time also undermines the efficiency of an entire health system. In cases where the patient requires emergency services, others have to wait for an extended period to receive attention. In cases of emergencies, the doctors leave the patients unattended to attend to the emergency case hence the system is slowed down. In instances where the patients have to wait for long hours, they might choose to do things out of desperation such as faking an emergency.

The third type of problem caused by the waiting time waste is that hospitals are affected regarding finances. This is most common in small hospitals. The publicity of the hospital may be concerned. Patient in most cases will feel that there need are not being taken care of, and therefore they will go to search for health services in other places hence the financial loose for the hospital

Transport

Transport is the movement of item and person from one position to another. This is done mainly by use of vehicles. Documents, machines, and specialist are usually transported from one health care provider to another. Though this may look like the best alternative in hospital cases, the following are some problems faced by this type of waste.

First, the expense of transporting materials from one place to another is usually high. This is because the items being transported must be appropriately packaged to avoid damages. For proper packaging to take place, the healthcare providers must provide quality backing material. Transportation fee regarding fuel and paying the drivers is also high in cases when shipping is required the transportation fee increase.

The second type problem that is associated with transport waste is that the quality of good is compromised. In cases where an item has to be transported for long distance, the climate may affect the quality of the items. There might also be mixed up when delivering well. In the case where the quality has been compromised the healthcare providers have to give more money to acquire another item.

Time wastage and untimely delivery of services may be significantly hindered in transportation. In cases where a doctor has to get to the patient fast, there might be problems like massive traffic jams or break down of the mean of transportation. In cases when the patient's health records have to be transported, they may be delays which may lead to late delivery of the services that the patient requires.

Inventory Waste

Processing or inventory waste happens when health providers inaccurately order inventory that becomes more than the demand. In such a case there is excess inventory. The first significant problem with this is space storage. The health provider will be forced to create more space for the excess inventory. This lead to a reduction of space to inventory that is needed.

The second issue is increasing in storage costs. In health sector preservation of medicine is critical. Poor storage may lead to alteration of the chemical compound in the medicine it's therefore essential that the medicine and other health items are correctly stored (Berwick &Hackbarth, 2012). In cases where there is inventory excess the storage is compromised or the health service providers. Has incurred the cost of goods they didn't require.

Reduction of profit is another challenge of excess inventory. When there are more items that the patient requires it means that the items are not being used this lead to reduced profit. In case an item has stayed long in the self's the service providers may decide to sell the items at a lower price than they initially acquired it for. In cases where the items expire the health services loses the cash completely.

Motion waste is the continuous movement of people and machines from one area of operation to another. This type of waste is associated with different problems. The ineffectiveness in performing tasks in a primary issue in the health sector. When the health specialist is always in constant motion, they usually have divided attention, and this makes them less efficient in performing tasks. When machines have to be continuously moved it means that the machine is not being efficiently utilized since the health providers have limited access to the device before it moves to the next user.

Motion and moments around the hospital or health facilities mean that a lot of time is being wasted. When people are continuously moving from one side to another, or from one section of the building to another a lot of time, I being wasted in walking.

Motion waste leads to congested of hallways, making it hard to move fat without running into people and items. This causes a state of confusion and order in a given sector of the room. In case of an emergency, the health providers are not able to reach the place of emergency in time. This can also cause serious damages and pose dangerous to items and people (Berwick &Hackbarth, 2012). When people are walking consistently in places where there is movement they are likely to pump into each other or machine. This leads to injuries to people and damages of properties such as windows and furniture.

Defects can be defined as a deviation of service and product from the specification or the requirement of the customer. One major problem of errors is the cost that in incurred to dispose of equipment and medicine that are defective. When an item becomes faulty it can no longer be used for its original purpose it is therefore essential to get rid of it properly. To dispose of the things according to the manufactures, a lot of money is utilized to ensure that the strategy of distraction is safe for both humans and the environment.

In case the defect gets out of the field it said to be the worst thing to happen to the institution because it affects the trust of the patient. When patients learn that the equipment they have been using is not standardized, they will start to avoid going to that health service provider even when the other sectors have not been affected.

The last problem that is associated with this waste is that a lot of time is wasted in repairing, disposing and installment of equipment. In cases where the item can be repaired the laborious spend a lot of time repairing the item, this takes a lot of time and reduces the effectiveness of the health system since the machine is no longer in use. In case the devices need to be replaced a lot again off time is waited in installing a new one which paralyzes or slow down the process of treating the patient.

How to eliminate waste in healthcareWhile wastage is a challenge in the healthcare field, the problem can be overcome trough proper planning. A plan is a diagram or steps that indicate time and resources that give direction on how to achieve an objective or goal. The following is a plan on how to eliminate waste in healthcare. The program is based on lean strategies.

The first step in the plan is goal definition, vision and mission outlining. The company seeks to improve the patient's experience by providing high-quality services in time and meeting most of the customers need. The company's management shall decide the number of people to sit on the panel that will deliberate on the issue. The board shall then deliberate on critical issues such a deadline of the project.

The second part of the plan is to evaluate the current state of the healthcare unit. A developer will be taken on the resources of the hospital. Clear rebelling against the available resources would be marked, and any other support that will come in the healthcare unit will be revolted using the same system that was used to rebel the rest of the items.

The next step in evaluating will be issuing out of questioner to the manufacture, the personnel in the health sector and the patients. The questioners will be released randomly without the use of any specific criteria. The purpose of the questioners will be to understand the current state of the healthcare system regarding the challenges that the patients and the staff face. This will also be used to reduce the needs of both the patients and the healthcare providers.

The third step in the plan will be on agreeing on priorities. For the team to come up with the list of priorities, they will be required to analyze the information that they obtained from their research. They will examine each of the seven wastes separately to determine which waste is experienced most in the healthcare facilities and how they affect each other.

After having a clear picture on different waste priorities will have to be aligned. In the alignment process, the following question will need to be answered.1 which waste is noticeable in all departments? Which residue influences the rest? Which waste causes the healthcare to lose a lot of profits? And finally which waste will need to be eliminated first because it effects hinders the delivery of fast quality services to the patients. A list of the priorities will be made with the priorities that need immediate elimination being given the priority.

The following step will be finding the solution while putting the plan together. After the most important needs have been identified the answer will be drawn. The solutions selected will be based on the problem and the resource available or needed. At this stage solutions from other sectors may be offered if they can be able to be incorporated in the healthcare sector.

The solu...