Lean Behavioral Health by Merlino Joseph P.;Omi Joanna;Bowen Jill;

Author:Merlino, Joseph P.;Omi, Joanna;Bowen, Jill;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Rapid Experiments

On a macro scale, the experience of KCHC in working to attain significant culture, process, and content change across the continuum of care in relatively short order serves as a “rapid” experiment for others looking to transform their institutions in radical and dramatic ways.

Lean provides the methodology, through events (RIEs and visioning), projects, metrics, and monitoring, but performance improvement is ultimately driven by the vision of the organization and the engagement and alignment of its staff with that vision. Gathering and using data and visual management tools and establishing standard work in this manner were new approaches for behavioral health and, in essence, rapid experiments in themselves. The visioning events are a vitally important part of the lean approach and the nexus around which the transformation continues to occur. Some of the initiatives you will read about in other chapters were designed as pilot projects, and other initiatives began in immature stages and then evolved with time as the process unfolded and other changes became apparent.

Performance improvement is a necessary part of the management of any behavioral health setting, and we found it profoundly useful in responding to regulatory and oversight agencies, regulatory requirements and mandates, as well as business planning. It provides a natural means for ensuring the use of best practices, with the tools to encourage inclusion and participation of all levels of staff, as well as those we serve. It is data driven and, as such, provides a means for describing improvements in ways that are easy to understand and provides strong evidence for the improvements occurring in the organization. And it is not separate from lean, but one in the same. The Joint Commission, in its recent survey, commented that we were a performance improvement-driven hospital and that they were delighted to be taking away so many best practices from our facility.

Lessons Learned

This experimentation with the tools and techniques of lean was an important part of our learning curve. As we moved forward, and incorporated more lean tools into our solution approaches and management style, we had an “Aha” moment when we came to realize that in terms of performance improvement, lean was not an add-on but was, in fact, our departmental approach to overall performance improvement. It was not an addition to the quality management work we were doing, but instead was the quality management work itself.

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