Healthcare management in the United States is said to develop at an unsustainable rate with inefficient planning and spending in the various spheres. Especially, these weaknesses have become more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven healthcare wastes, including defects, waiting, transportation, overproduction, overprocessing, inventory, and motion, reveal the problems associated with healthcare management. These problems create inconsistency in procedures, interruption of mandatory operations, resulting in high costs, errors, and poor performance. This paper will discuss seven waste operations and the possible ways to overcome these issues.
Overproduction is a waste that occurs when production exceeds the current demand required for the process. According to Boi (2019), overproduction in healthcare is found in many aspects related to facilities and medications. An excellent example of this waste is when the patient occupies an acute medical bed for a more extended period than required. Another example of the process is unnecessary pathological or radiological tests or irrelevant investigations (Bharsakade et al., 2021). To eliminate overproduction, policymakers should design a relevant strategy that will be beneficial in regulating drugs, personnel, and other resources (Kettering University Online, 2019). The applicable plan of organizing could benefit the resource management of healthcare institutions.
Contrasting with overproduction, overprocessing indicates the misuse of the process itself. To illustrate, operations conducted by a specialist of a much higher level are recognized as overprocessing (Bharsakade et al., 2021). As Boi (2019) mentions, this waste also could appear when irrelevant patient history is used or unneeded blood tests are requested. The viable solution to the issue is to improve the communication level between staff members (Bharsakade et al., 2019). Good communication between doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel allows prioritizing and administering tasks without perverting the process (Kettering Online University, 2019). In addition, a higher communication level provides more effective operation and reaction time.
The definition of waiting for waste differs slightly in manufacturing and healthcare. In manufacturing, waiting is defined as the process of moving goods through the plant due to the absence of materials or tools (Boi, 2019). While in health management, this process is explained as time without any activity related to patient health (Bharsakade et al., 2021). The reasons for delays could be related to the absence or deficiency of physical resources such as medications or beds and human resources. A good example of this waste is an emergency patient waiting for initial treatment, investigation, or results (Boi, 2019). According to Bharsakade et al. (2021), lean management that implies effective and fast regulation of resources could be implemented to eliminate the problem. Furthermore, this method could reduce other wastes such as transportation and motion.
Transportation waste refers to an excessive product or patient travel. Although transport for movement is essential in several cases, unnecessary lab equipment, patients, and medications negatively affect the working process. Bharsakade et al. (2021) declare that hospital layout could reduce excessive hospital movement in proper implementation. In contrast, motion waste is associated with the extensive actions of healthcare workers. Motion waste occurs when employees walk the hospital to treat patients, look for equipment, and locate inconvenient points (Boi, 2019). The possible solution to this problem is to provide employees with all necessary equipment and an appropriate location.
Waste of inventory occurs when equipment or necessary material can finish, get damaged, and become out-of-date. To illustrate, batching blood draws and lab tests, oversupplying medical stocks, and holding patients for a more extended than required time are recognized as inventory issues (Bharsakade et al., 2021). This process could lead to the utilization of excess funding, ineffective operational procedures, and harm to patients (Boi, 2019). Bharsakade et al. (2021) offer a lean initiative that focuses on patient’s needs to keep inventory levels low. Waste of defect emphasizes any activity that does not match set standards (Bharsakade et al., 2021). Common examples of this type are wrong diagnoses, miscommunication, and foreign material that remained inpatient during the surgical operations (Boi, 2019). In reducing mistakes, a technology-based informatics system could be applied (Bharsakade et al., 2021). This allows automizing the system and minimizes the human factor.
References
Bharsakade, R. S., Acharya, P., Ganapathy, L., & Tiwari, M. K. (2021). A lean approach to healthcare management using multi criteria decision making. OPSEARCH, 58(3), 610–635.
Boi, L. (2019). The seven wastes in health care. Accelerate.
Kettering University Online. (2019). How lean principles eliminate waste and increase productivity in healthcare. Kettering University Online.