Value Stream Mapping (“VSM”) is a lean manufacturing or lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer [1]. In the Emergency Department, the customer is the patient and the product is the service rendered. Central to Value Stream Mapping in the Emergency Department (“ED”) setting is its focus on the patient with analysis of activities viewed from the patient’s perspective.
VSM is a strategic planning tool applicable to both service and product industries. VSM differs from the typical metrics process map in the following five ways: 1) scope, which includes an end-to-end system map, 2) perspective, which is a high level macro view …show more content…
Waiting is one of lean six sigma’s eight types of waste. The eight wastes of lean are known by the acronym “TIM WOODS” and stands for: transport, inventory, motion, waiting, over production, over processing, defects, and skills [2]. This paper will explore how VSM methodology applied in the ED can successfully improve the patient’s overall experience and reduce waste. A graphical depiction of the ED care continuum is produced, highlighting information and material flows with timeline quantification of both value and non-value added activities. Activities and their requisite incremental and total waits times along with other indicators of waste are explored within the context of the patient’s experience and a mindset of the looking forward to a future …show more content…
In the application of VSM methodology, we analyze the process from a holistic approach rather than from a micro approach with the micro approach analyzing one possible pathway, similar to what is done in the metrics process mapping methodology. Rather, the big picture value stream is documented keeping focus the patient experience and on quality and patient safety. This is very important and why it is necessary to have the right stakeholders and clinicians involved. What may look like waste to a non-clinician may very well be policy or standard operating procedure necessary as a check and balance to support quality and patient safety best practice.
Hospital departments tend to operate in silos where each silo is ‘owned’ by a different manager. Patients often travel across these silos in the continuum of care. The internal ownership of the patient’s experience can often get lost in in this and a VSM is the best way to identify the value of a patient’s experience and reestablish the ownership of that experience for the
VSM is a strategic planning tool applicable to both service and product industries. VSM differs from the typical metrics process map in the following five ways: 1) scope, which includes an end-to-end system map, 2) perspective, which is a high level macro view …show more content…
Waiting is one of lean six sigma’s eight types of waste. The eight wastes of lean are known by the acronym “TIM WOODS” and stands for: transport, inventory, motion, waiting, over production, over processing, defects, and skills [2]. This paper will explore how VSM methodology applied in the ED can successfully improve the patient’s overall experience and reduce waste. A graphical depiction of the ED care continuum is produced, highlighting information and material flows with timeline quantification of both value and non-value added activities. Activities and their requisite incremental and total waits times along with other indicators of waste are explored within the context of the patient’s experience and a mindset of the looking forward to a future …show more content…
In the application of VSM methodology, we analyze the process from a holistic approach rather than from a micro approach with the micro approach analyzing one possible pathway, similar to what is done in the metrics process mapping methodology. Rather, the big picture value stream is documented keeping focus the patient experience and on quality and patient safety. This is very important and why it is necessary to have the right stakeholders and clinicians involved. What may look like waste to a non-clinician may very well be policy or standard operating procedure necessary as a check and balance to support quality and patient safety best practice.
Hospital departments tend to operate in silos where each silo is ‘owned’ by a different manager. Patients often travel across these silos in the continuum of care. The internal ownership of the patient’s experience can often get lost in in this and a VSM is the best way to identify the value of a patient’s experience and reestablish the ownership of that experience for the