2009-10 Team Project Summaries

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Barnes-Jewish Hospital
St. Louis, MO, USA

Enhancing Quality in Patient Care by Embracing Lean

Presentation: Tuesday, May 25, 4:15 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Room: 266

Type of Team: Lean

Barnes-Jewish Hospital is a 1,200-bed academic medical center located in St. Louis, MO, with a lean transformation team that is working to change culture, standardize workflows, and improve processes of more than 9,000 employees, 800 residents, and 1,700 physicians. By implementing a lean training program with modules in 5S, standard work, problem solving, managing for daily improvement, and pull systems, the operations excellence department is establishing a solid foundation. This lean training initiative, combined with traditional process improvement, Six Sigma, and other culture changing tools, will achieve enhanced quality in patient care and a safer environment for employees, patients, and visitors. The result includes less waiting for patients and improved efficiency throughout the organization. Lean transformation can be measured by improvements in safety, quality, service, employee engagement, and financial performance. With approximately 55,000 inpatient admissions annually, this high-performance healthcare organization is driven by a team-focused administration. Come see one hospital’s model for deploying lean expertise and harnessing employee potential within a high-tech and high-touch healthcare culture.

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