CALL FOR CHAPTER
Lean Thinking in Healthcare
Edited by Nilmini Wickramasinghe, Latif Al-Hakim, Chris Gonzalez and Joseph Tan
INTRODUCTION
Lean thinking aims to substantially smooth flows and drastically reduce waste and process variations. The application of lean requires looking to the system as “sociotechnical” system in which human factor engineering and technology plays the central role. The ‘sociotechnical’ aspect of lean production has been enhanced through introducing five principles (i.e., value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection) within which the customer value and waste reduction are the cores of the lean system. Literature emphasises that lean thinking provides four main benefits; improved quality and safety, improved delivery, improved throughput – the same resources with higher efficiency, and accelerating momentum – A stable working environment with clear, standardised procedures creates the foundations for constant improvement.
Literature emphasises the applicability of lean thinking to healthcare services. Although some healthcare professionals may argue that lean thinking is more suitable to manufacturing and does not translate well to healthcare services. Other healthcare researchers show how it does apply to healthcare by providing theory, case studies, and context for lean applications. Lean thinking has been applied in redesigning healthcare processes, improving patient flows, reducing costs, increasing efficiency, boosting effectiveness and enhancing customer satisfaction in emergency departments, operating theatres, outpatient sections, laboratories and other healthcare services.
THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THE BOOK
Theories and methodologies are no longer enough for achieving their purposes without the ability to convert these theories and methodologies into practice. Lean Thinking for Healthcare will provide in one volume six major challenges in the application of lean thinking in healthcare services; theory, costs, tools, applications, benchmarking and future trends. This book features chapters (5,500-8,500 words) of recent high-quality theoretical and empirical studies and include both qualitative and quantitative studies. This book provides a valuable contribution as it will highlight innovative applications of lean thinking in healthcare, and furthermore provides practical and theoretical discussion of factors which contribute to success and failure of lean thinking applications.
Lean Thinking in healthcare will be a valuable resource for medical professionals, medical researchers, healthcare management, lean thinking researchers, and health informatics postgraduate students who are interested in theoretical and empirical research, and/or evaluative studies of lean thinking in healthcare services.
RECOMMENDED TOPICS:
Recommended general topics includes, but are not limited to, the following:
Theoretical Background including areas such as:
- Lean thinking principles
- Value stream and process mapping
- Clinical governance and process variation
Lean thinking techniques including areas such as:
- Waste reduction techniques, the five S and Six Sigma
- Methos study and motion economy
- Process reengineering and benchmarking
- Practice Audits with e-tools
Applications including areas such as:
- General application of lean thinking in healthcare services
- Lean thinking application for outpatient areas
- Lean thinking application for Emergency Department
- Lean Thinking for bed and capacity management
Benchmarking including various case studies conducted in various hospitals and countries and benchmark various practices are welcomed.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before 15 February 2012, a 2-3 page manuscript proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of the proposed chapter.
Authors of accepted proposal will be notified by March 15, 2012 about the status of their proposal and sent chapter organisational guidelines.
Full chapters are expected to be submitted by June 30, 2012. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a blind review basis.
The book is scheduled to be published by Springer Publishing Company, www.springerpub.com, as part of the series “Health Care Delivery in the Information Age”.
The book is scheduled to be available by December 2012.
Inquiries and Submissions can be forwarded electronically (word document) or by mail to:
nilmini [dot] wickramasinghe [at] rmit [dot] edu [dot] au
Professor Nilmini Wickramasinghe
Epworth Chair Health Information Management
School of Business IT and Logistics
RMIT University
GPO Box 2476
Melbourne VIC 3001
AUSTRALIA
