Lean Implementation for the Emergency Department

Modifying Lean Implementation for the Emergency Department

This White Paper describes the modified Lean implementation process that was successfully implemented by EmCare at six emergency departments in the Southeast United States.

Overview

As a result of the increasing demand on emergency departments (ED) to accommodate additional capacity, six facilities of a national hospital chain located in the Southeast United States teamed up with EmCare to review recent best practice publications, incorporate individual ideas, implement changes, modify processes and develop a standard best practice recommendation for efficient, quality ED care.

EmCare and the six facilities performed a shared training and implementation process. Lean and time management principles were taught to ED staff and medical providers and best practices were introduced to both groups.

Lean principles were learned, modified and applied to create an effective model that would satisfy every department’s individual situation. The strategy was derived from the traditional five day Kaizan Lean event and modified to fit the culture, productivity and budgetary needs of an ED.

All of the facilities included in this paper have seen significant improvements in performance metrics. The door-to-physician times and the percentage of patients leaving without being seen by a physician dropped as much as 67 percent and total patient length of stay as much as 60 percent. The facilities have also been able to maintain performance improvement despite volume growths of up to 33 percent.