LHC 120: Healthcare Value Stream Mapping


Do you struggle with...?

  • Long patient wait times and poor patient flow?
  • Medical errors?
  • Problems that reoccur year after year?
  • Growing demand for services but limited capacity?
  • Isolated improvements that don't seem to result in better patient care or lower costs?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, Healthcare Value Stream Mapping  is the course for you.

Prerequisites:

You should be familiar with Lean principles as they are applied to healthcare.  We strongly recommend attending Lean Healthcare Overview prior to this class. 

Description:

Value Stream Mapping is the process of observing and understanding the current condition and drawing a map that becomes your blue print for Lean healthcare implementation.  This course will teach you the difference between value and the 7 types of waste and how to identify them through Value Stream Mapping. This course gives you the knowledge, the tools and the practice you need to begin drawing Value Stream Maps for the purpose of improving patient flow or ancillary services productivity and throughput time.

Duration: 8 Hour

Course Outline:

This course will be a "teach & do" format where you will learn in class how to create a Value Stream Map, and then walk through and observe a case study or actual healthcare process and create a Value Stream Map.  The appropriate Lean healthcare principles will be taught along the way as you document the current state, identify the wastes, draw a future state and create an improvement plan.  The course will cover:

  • Healthcare Value Stream Mapping overview
  • The 10 steps of Value Stream Mapping
  • Drawing a current-state map (paper exercise)
  • Direct Process Observation
  • Drawing a current state map (simulated outpatient department flow)
  • Identifying the 7 types of waste in healthcare processes
  • Discussion of the 10 questions for future state mapping
  • Identifying Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost opportunities
  • Drawing a future-state map
  • Creating an improvement plan to achieve the future state

Learning Objectives:

Upon the successful completion of this course, you will demonstrate the ability to:

  • Explain Value Stream Mapping to others
  • Describe the benefits of Value Stream Mapping activity for healthcare
  • Perform direct process observation effectively in a healthcare environment
  • Draw a current state map of a patient care process
  • Draw a current state map of a lab or pharmacy process
  • Identify the 7 types of waste documented on the map
  • Draw a future state map
  • Create a plan for action based on the value stream maps

Benefits:

This course gives you both the knowledge and hands-on practice of Value Stream Mapping by using a simulated hospital environment as a case study for direct process observation.  The future state map drawing activity will show you how to apply Lean principles and tools to eliminate waste and create an improvement plan for the healthcare environment.  You will be able to:

  • Visualize the whole patient flow process
  • Identify improvement opportunities based on direct process observation
  • Prioritize and target high-impact kaizen activity
  • See the link between patient flow, information flow, and material flow
  • Understand how to apply Lean principles for flow-focused improvement and not just point improvement
  • Create an action plan
  • Give your team a common language for looking at your processes and Lean healthcare efforts

Who Should Attend:

This course is designed to provide practical knowledge and tools to improve healthcare operations and to advance your Lean healthcare efforts.  The target audience includes:

  • Hospital staff, nurses, administrators, physicians, supervisors, technicians, quality managers
  • Any hospital department, private practice, or health service facility

Course Level:

This course is designated as a 100 level class and is appropriate for beginners or as a refresher for practitioners.

Recommended Reading:

  • Doing More with Less: Lean Thinking and Patient Safety in Healthcare, Joint Commission Resources
  • The Toyota Way, by Jeffrey Liker will provide familiarity with Lean concepts
  • Learning to See by Mike Rother and John Shook is a primer on Value Stream Mapping