Abstract
Background/Aims: Group Health Cooperative has adopted the Lean management system as a key organizing methodology for eliminating waste and inefficiency in the healthcare environment by organizing the work around value provided to the customer. This poster presentation demonstrates how the Center for Health Studies, the research arm of Group Health Cooperative, applied Lean principles to the grant application submission process with the goals of improving quality and customer service by reducing waste and defining standard work. Before applying Lean methodology, the application submission process was inefficient, often requiring timeintensive, heroic efforts from project and administrative members to submit an application for funding on time. Roles were not clear and work was performed in isolation or silos. Duplicate and rework often occurred. This resulted in poor staff morale and customer requirements not being met. There were no established standards and best practices were often not shared resulting in different and inconsistent approaches to the work with variable outcomes.
Methods: Using the two organizing principles of Lean, “continuous improvement and respect for people,” as the foundation for this project, we used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. We conducted a survey of key stakeholder groups and observed work processes during a major grant-application funding cycle. Once the data was collected, a cross-functional group of stakeholders held a rapid process improvement workshop over a period of one week to review data, develop improvement targets, and develop a standardized process. The process improvements were implemented over a period of three months.
Results: By reducing waste and implementing standard work across the application submission process, the project and research teams improved their working relationships, improved stakeholder and customer satisfaction, improved workflow, eliminated significant non value added steps and improved their capacity to respond to fast turnaround requests.
Conclusions: Lean tools and processes enabled the Center to reduce waste and inefficiency across the application submission process and grow internal capacity. Teams are better equipped to recognize and remedy daily work issues, increasing overall responsiveness to changes and challenges in the funding environment. Daily leadership and management is a critical element to succeeding in sustaining these improvements.
