Park Nicollet system looks to auto industry for efficiency models - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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St. Louis Park-based is on the forefron t of such efforts. Six years ago, it becamde one of the first health systems in the country to implementthe “lea n production” principles that uses to make Ask hospital officials about “lean,” and they’ll say the principlezs do more than save They improve care provided to patients by eliminating safety problems and long wait times. “Waste for us in patientf care is patients havingto wait. That’s wastefulk of their time and it’s not valuing theid time. To do things well ­— there’s a real joy in and lean has reallyhelped us,” said Dr.
Mark Park Nicollet’s chief of oncology services. A central featurr of the principles involves frequent stafft meetings to brainstorm measures on how to weed out The designof ’s new cancer centefr in St. Louis Park is a direcyt result ofsuch meetings. Employees and some patients met back in 2005 and plotter out diagrams and even ran coloreed strings through models to figure out the way cancedr patients moved through the oldspace — and could move througn a new space. Park Nicollet hired St.
Louis Park-based to builcd a new wing at Methodist to consolidate its cancer The hospital is in the process of movinhg staff into the new facility the result ofa two-year, $30 million constructiojn project. The new facility was designed with lean productiobn principlesin mind. Before the new cancet center, an already fatigued cancee patient could end up walkinvg more than 700feet — from check-in at the front desk to an examination room to anothee area for treatment and even to the pharmacy. Now a cancert patient is escorted to a single where everything is then brought to himor her. The new setul cuts walking distance to as little as30 feet.
“It’se answering the response of our patientswho ‘I don’t want to stand. I don’t want to I want to conserve my energy. Is it possiblw for me just to go to one room and have thingz cometo me?’” said Mark Parkinson, directort of the . Officialsw say it’s too early to tell how much lean design and operationws will save thecancer center, or improvs patient outcomes, but Park Nicolleg officials note that hundreds of thousandsz of dollars have been saved elsewhere in the systemm thanks to these principles (see sidebar at The use of lean production is becoming more common among providers acrosse the country, but few health systems implementec it as extensively as Park Nicollet, said John Black, presideny of Seattle-based John Black and Associates, which has advised the healthu system on lean principles.
Black said his clients have to acknowledge that lean isan in-depthn process that’s going to take 20 years to trulyy implement. “I won’t accept them unless they agree that this is the Wilkowske said there can be some resistancd from workers over thelean process. “It’s an adjustment and change is But at thesame time, the work that is goin on in the room is the same work. Theres are more things that are the same than he said. Lori Christian, a registered nurse and labor union leaderat Methodist, said the lean philosophieds have been useful in outpatient settings, such as the cancer and with scheduled surgeries.
However, incorporatingy the principles inemergency settings, where standards procedures don’t always apply, was more problematic. “Nothing is Things don’t always go smoothly. It can be unpredictable. The proces s has not worked as well inthe in-patient settint because the patient population is more variable and unpredictable,” Christian said. Jack director of the ’ health care MBA said lean has caused conflictsw between management and care workers in someprovider settings, but that Park Nicollet has done a good job of avoidintg such problems by engaging workers in the process. “Park Nicollet has made it part ofthe culture.
” How lean can Park Nicolleyt get? In the Park Nicollet Methodisyt Hospital pharmacy, a team reduced the numbe of intravenous medications prepared but not needed by 30 It also reduced the physical inventory of IV solutionsw by 69 percent for a one-timr savings of $150,000. The care systen has worked to only orderr inventoryas needed. To date, the value of eliminated inventory itemsis $877,688. Park Nicollet starteds a program in 2007 to engage employeesw tofind savings. So far, 240 employees have submittedc ideas that have improved safety and resulting in morethan $500,000 in savings.