Eliminate waste
1. Eliminate non-value-added activity. One key principle of lean management is the elimination of any activity that does not add value to an organization's end product. For hospitals, this refers to any activity that is not necessary in providing excellent patient care.
"In an ER visit, a value-added activity would be registering the patient, having a nurse triage the patient, the doctor making the diagnosis. Waiting in the waiting room or in a patient room is a non-value-added activity," says Alan Kent, president and CEO of Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia, Ga. "In the ER, about 80-90 percent of a patient's time is waiting. Lean attacks time that is non-value added.