I could trace my interest in Lean Healthcare back to 2012, when I saw a profile update of one of my LinkedIn contacts saying that he became certified in Lean Healthcare. At that time, I was a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt who didn’t have the chance to practice much SS except for a couple of shy attempts, with lean being deceivingly reduced to a collection of tools!
After a huge interest in SS, I discovered that it’s not my cup of tea, perhaps for its heavy dependence on statistics which isn’t very practical in the complex healthcare system, and the fact that it is not a very popular improvement methodology in the healthcare system I know, or other health care systems for that matter. Another reason for the limited application of SS is that “true” SS implementation requires a team of trained and certified black or green belts. At many times, this means relying on external consultants.
In contrast to Lean, SS doesn’t emphasize the cultural elements of respect for people, going to the Genba, and continuous improvement; all of which made the former more appealing in a health care setting.
After studying Lean in depth, I found it more applicable with a strong and growing evidence of successful implementation in health care worldwide. Every day, Lean proves to be the solution of many healthcare problems that we face globally, being it quality, safety, or cost issues. It became my method of choice in thinking about problems or improvement in general. Hence, I always lean towards Lean!
