What if America’s health care system could be run more efficiently with less waste and duplication of effort? Faculty members at Loyola Marymount University’s Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering posed that question and answered it with the creation of an innovative new program, the Graduate Certificate in Lean Healthcare Systems.
“Lean is the main tool for improving health care in the United States,” said Bohdan W. Oppenheim, the systems engineering professor who created the program. Originally developed as an operational model in the Japanese auto industry, the concept of lean “simply means identifying and removing waste from operations, while at the same time promoting value to the customer,” explained Oppenheim, who has co-authored three books on the subject.
For the past year, groups of directors and managers from Kaiser Permanente Southern California have participated in the three-course graduate certificate program. One group identified 139 best practices that would streamline operations in clinical laboratories that serve more than 200 of Kaiser Permanente’s medical facilities in this region at a potential savings of $15 million.
Administrators at Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s regional state of the art laboratory say the program helps them to better serve its more than 3.8 million members. Kaiser Permanente’s regional laboratory performed 59.1 million tests for Southern California members in 2014 serving 14 hospitals, medical offices and other outpatient facilities.
“By streamlining operations we are putting patients first to better serve and meet their future needs. Kaiser Permanente’s focus on its patients is very much aligned with lean principles and the work with LMU should allow us to improve efficiency and effectiveness to our care delivery system,” said Michael Kanter, M.D., regional medical director of quality and clinical analysis, Southern California Permanente Medical Group. “The collaboration between LMU and Kaiser Permanente allows both organizations to learn from each other’s expertise. ”
Oppenheim says lean methodology will work for all health care providers: hospitals, clinics, emergency departments and operating rooms, laboratories, pharmacies, supply chain and administration.
