Lead-Time Reduction Utilizing Lean Tools Applied to Healthcare: The Inpatient Pharmacy at a Local Hospital

TLDR

Lean principles from Toyota reduce nonvalue‑added time, money, and energy in healthcare. The study applies lean management principles to cut wasted time in drug dispensing at an inpatient pharmacy. The authors employed DMAIC and 5S tools to identify and eliminate wastes that lengthen pharmacy lead time. The analysis uncovered unnecessary complexities that delay medication delivery and demonstrated that the lean interventions could cut dispensing cycle time by over 45%.

Abstract

The healthcare arena, much like the manufacturing industry, benefits from many aspects of the Toyota lean principles. Lean thinking contributes to reducing or eliminating nonvalue-added time, money, and energy in healthcare. In this paper, we apply selected principles of lean management aiming at reducing the wasted time associated with drug dispensing at an inpatient pharmacy at a local hospital. Thorough investigation of the drug dispensing process revealed unnecessary complexities that contribute to delays in delivering medications to patients. We utilize DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) and 5S (Sort, Set-in-order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain) principles to identify and reduce wastes that contribute to increasing the lead-time in healthcare operations at the pharmacy understudy. The results obtained from the study revealed potential savings of > 45% in the drug dispensing cycle time.