Good Samaritan Hospital Uses Lean

Company Profile: As a large regional referral medical center, Good Samaritan Hospital knew that implementing a hospital-wide Lean initiative was imperative to furthering their vision of improving health, managing cost, and providing value to their patients. Using their laboratory as the launching pad for their lean initiative, the hospital contracted TechSolve to streamline workflow and improve productivity.

Project: As a large medical center, the Good Samaritan’s in-house diagnostic laboratories perform approximately 500,000 billed tests per year. TechSolve and the hospital first teamed up to assess and document the current processes, inventory, workflow, and layout issues of the Core Clinical Laboratory, Phlebotomy, and Patient Services areas. As part of building a sustainable lean culture within these areas, all staff were provided with lean solutions so they could participate in identifying and implementing improvements.

The project also led to the complete redesign of the laboratory facility. Gutting and reorganizing the lab, in addition to the installation of mobile benches, enabled the laboratory to manage demand fluctuations and future growth with greater ease and without substantial cost. To remove delays and unnecessary wait times, processes and workplaces within the lab were standardized. Also, a Kanban system was installed to reduce ordering time and inventory levels and costs.

Results: As a result of their Lean Lab project with TechSolve, Good Samaritan has significantly enhanced the quality and delivery of their patient services. So far, they have achieved:

• 49% improvement in turnaround time (TAT) variation across the top eight critical/high-volume tests
• 35% improvement in turnaround time (TAT) across the top eight critical/high-volume tests
• 50% increase in percent of tests verified by 7 a.m. (start of morning rounds)
• Estimated bottom-line impact of nearly $200,000

The improvement efforts at this hospital are only just beginning, and these ongoing efforts will soon extend into other areas of the lab and throughout the entire hospital.

“We quickly reached our desired initial goals in both areas  and continue to push for even better outcomes using the tools learned from TechSolve. The redesign of the lab has changed the way we work as a team and is helping change the culture to ‘one patient, one process, one team.’” 
Peggi Jenkins  Director of Process Improvement