Question

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SF General's initiative to adopt Kaizen to improve its operations and the challenges it still faces along its journey. Staff members at SF General employed Kaizen in areas such as reducing patients' average wheels-in to incision time to shaving average wait time in its Urgent Care unit. These improvement efforts, while commendable, did not eliminate errors completely. Ironically, around the same time Kaizen implementation at SF General Hospital was reported, another news broke about that SF General lost a female patient for two weeks, and she was eventually found dead in a hospital stairway.)

answers to the questions below:

1.Why are hospitals, such as San Francisco General Hospital, adopting the ‘Toyota Way’?

2.Which of the many Japanese terms (listed in the Glossary provided below) could have prevented the lost patient? Explain the rationale of your choice(s).

Glossary Toyota's production system, which focuses on reducing waste and inefficiencies while making customers happier, has been increasingly adopted by hospitals trying to improve medical quality and increase patient satisfaction. Here are some of the system's frequently used Japanese terms, many of which do not have a direct English translation

Gemba: the place where work is performed

Hansei: a period of critical self reflection

Heijunka: a level production schedule that provides balance and smooths day-to-day variation

Jidoka: using both human intelligence and technology to stop a process at the first sign of a potential problem

Kaizen: continuous improvement

Kanban: a visual card or signal used to trigger the fulfillment of need, such as restocking supplies

Muda: anything that consumes resources but provides no value

Poke-yoke: a mistake-proofing device that prevents errors

Answer 1

Ans 1. Leading hospitals such as San Francisco general Hospital are adopting the " Toyota Way" because of the following reasons:

• Decrease in wastage of any kind; time, cost or equipment. A small time of ten minutes wasted , may sound only a little , but when we calculate the same for all the doctors, nurses and staffs of such a huge hospital , hat time can be huge and may result in loss as huge as a total working day.
• Decrease in Waiting time for patients: Waiting time of a patient, specially one who is critically injured or in critical condition can be reduced by devising the process in a lean manner.
• Streamlining the Operation room allocation process for faster movement of patients from the critical care unit to the operation room.
• Cost cutting psychology: Kaizen used by Toyota is successful in cutting operational cost by making the system leaner and reducing wastage at each stage.
• Patient centered approach: San Francisco general Hospital is looking for competitive advantage to find a better way to serve patients while building the customer loyalty and keeping competitors at bay,

Ans 2: " Kanban" and " Poka -yoke" could have prevented the above mentioned mishap. A Kanban when implemented, will help in visual display of any abnormality. Since, the patient was missing, a Kanban would have made it possible to raise an alarm and stop the mishap.

Poka -Yoke would have doubly ensured that the mishap if happened ,can be rectified. Even after Kanban , a second level of protection is implemented to detect the error. When everybody would know that the female patient is missing, then a next step ensuring that she would be searched and found out must have been ensured.