Principles and tools of Lean Healthcare: application in a hospital in Santa Catarina

Health institutions, such as hospitals, have sought to improve their operations, within their management, to increase competitiveness. Several hospitals have sought techniques adopted in manufacturing to solve their problems. For this, there is the Lean Healthcare approach that is able to adjust processes, improve the experience of patients and staff during treatment and, contribute positively to the budget. In line with these arguments, the present study aimed to propose recommendations for improvements to the hospital's problems, through the principles and tools of the Lean Healthcare approach. The study is characterized as an action research and its methodological procedures are: define the problem, understand the current situation, identify the wastes, propose improvements and implement the initial solutions. The results were obtained through the development of flow mappings of the value of the sectors, being identified in these wastes, proposing improvements and solutions in the action plan. Some actions were implemented initially, and evidence of the gain acquired in lead time with the application of the whole plan. An A3 report was developed to illustrate the work and improvements obtained by using Lean Healthcare.