Title: An application of lean management on capacity and operational processes in a comprehensive epilepsy program

Authors: Deepak Madhavan; Marc J. Schniederjans; Dara G. Schniederjans

Addresses: Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-8435, USA ' College of Business Administration, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0491, USA ' College of Business Administration, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881, USA

Abstract: The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) comprehensive epilepsy program has faced challenges accompanying the growth of the centre focused on optimising patient throughput and minimising wait times. Wait times in particular have been a problem due to deficiencies in infrastructural organisation and capacity for diagnostic testing. This paper focuses on the outcomes of the implementation of lean management in the UNMC comprehensive epilepsy program. Performance comparisons on wait times from the initial patient visit to VEEG monitoring (the first critical diagnostic step in determining the proper intervention for patients) are made to a post state where specific strategies drawn from lean management are utilised to construct patient flow maps that maximise value-added activities. The results show the lean management approach during the period of this study was ideal for uncovering methods to maintain clinical services while decreasing wait times as a complementary strategy for increasing diagnostic testing capacity.

Keywords: lean; lean management; epilepsy; operational processes; capacity planning; hospital application; lean application; value stream mapping; bottleneck planning; patient throughput; patient weighting times.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLER.2016.084589

International Journal of Lean Enterprise Research, 2016 Vol.2 No.2, pp.146 - 158

Received: 25 Aug 2016
Accepted: 10 Feb 2017
Published online: 15 Jun 2017 *

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