Abstract
Recently, the application of lean thinking in healthcare has grown significantly in response to rising demand caused by population growth, ageing and high expectations of service quality. However, insufficient justifications and lack of quantifiable evidence are the main obstacles to convince healthcare executives to adopt lean. Therefore, this paper presents a methodology that integrates lean tools with simulation to enhance the quality of patient care in healthcare facilities. This enables healthcare organisations to dedicate more time and effort to patient care without extra cost to the organisation or to the patient. Value stream mapping is used to identify value-added and non-value-added activities. Then, a comprehensive simulation model is developed to account for the variability and complexity of healthcare processes and to assess the gains of proposed improvement strategies. An extensive analysis of results is provided and presented to managers to illustrate the potential benefits of adapting lean practices.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages | 149-155 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
| Event | 1st International Workshop on Innovative Simulation for Health Care, IWISH 2012, Held at the International Multidisciplinary Modeling and Simulation Multiconference, I3M 2012 - Vienna, Austria Duration: 19 Sep 2012 → 21 Sep 2012 |
Conference
| Conference | 1st International Workshop on Innovative Simulation for Health Care, IWISH 2012, Held at the International Multidisciplinary Modeling and Simulation Multiconference, I3M 2012 |
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| Country/Territory | Austria |
| City | Vienna |
| Period | 19/09/12 → 21/09/12 |
Keywords
- Healthcare management
- Lean thinking
- Modelling and simulation
- Value stream mapping