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Hospital Studies Like Harley-Davidson and Toyota, Gifford Medical Center is going lean, experimenting with the low-fat diet that has revoluntionized manufacturing over the last 10 years. Through a pilot program called the Vermont Lean Healthcare Transformation Project, the Randolph hospital hopes to learn and implement some of the "lean management" strategies that have helped manufacturing companies compete and become more efficient. If the program works, Gifford would become a management model for the other 13 hospitals in Vermont. Gifford was chosen for the Lean Healthcare project by the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC), hosted at Vermont Technical College. VMEC has developed a Process Strategies Group (PSG) specifically to bring lean manufacturing principles to three important Vermont service sectors—health care, government, and higher education. The Lean Healthcare Project at Gifford would be funded from a legislative appropriation of $1 million to the Vermont State Colleges for workforce training and development. Pioneered by Toyota, lean manufacturing has long been a focus of the services that VMEC has been providing Vermont manufacurers, according to VMEC Director Bob Zider. "Lean is not about eliminating jobs," stressed Fred Babinger of Jericho, who is heading up the Process Strategies Group. "It is about continuously improving the work process and making it more efficient, more effective and improving customer satisfaction. "Properly implemented, it really works, and it yields significant, measurable results." While Gifford already makes operational efficiency its goal and has achieved some of the lowest rate increases in the state, Gifford President Joseph Woodin said the opportunity to improve even more was too good to pass up. It received unanimous approval from the hospital’s senior managers. "There is always room for improvement," Woodin said, "especially now as Gifford experiences some very welcome growth. Our surgery program is one area that has grown recently. So VMEC will, for example, help us more efficiently utilize our operating rooms." Training Comes First Gifford’s initial investment will be in personnel time. VMEC’s Process Strategies Group, in partnership with the Montana-based Lean Healthcare West, will train medical center employees two days a week, two hours per day, over a 17-week period. The end result will be employees who are familiar with lean improvement principles and strategies, with some being certified to instruct other hospital staff in lean practices. The pilot strategy will also include identifying "non-value adding areas," such as patient confusion, wait times and over-processing, and significantly reducing or eliminating those. Analyzing inventory and the location of equipment, and walking patterns to reach that equipment, are a few ways waste may be eliminated. "This is an exciting opportunity to have valuable feedback from an outside perspective, and it’s being provided to us at no cost," Woodin summarized. "Gifford is a great place to launch our first Lean Healthcare Transformation Project because of its leadership, size and central location," says Babinger. "Joe Woodin has a lot of energy for the project and he also has an industrial engineering background. "I also like Gifford because it is not a broken institution. It has many successes under its belt and wants to improve. "At the end of this effort, I expect Gifford to be a shining star. Can improvement take place in the health care industry? Yes, it can." |
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