Improving Hospital Performance by Use of Lean Techniques: An Action Research Project in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This article presents the implementation of Lean health care techniques in a surgery department of a Brazilian hospital. The proposed Lean methodology is based on a set of nested improvement cycles that are used to continuously improve the value chain. The results of the implementation showed improvement in cycle time, capacity, and savings in costs. Another important improvement was a significant reduction of 94 percent in the index of delayed surgery due to the lack of materials and a reduction in postsurgery infection.

KEYWORDS:

• action research
• Brazilian hospital
• Lean health care
• Lean thinking