Evaluation of the Performance of Hospital Rapid Emergency Department based on the Lean Principles

Abstract

Introduction: Over the past years, with the rising cost of health care in most countries and the importance of proper functioning of health centers due to their close relation with human life, much attention has been paid to various parts of hospital performance. The main goal of this article was improving the quality of health services by measuring the performance of hospital rapid emergency department using lean principles in order to improve the effectiveness in this sector. Methods: To achieve comprehensive lean concepts in a health system, Goodson’s method has been developed for emergency department. This method uses an expert team and a questionnaire and a rating sheet as measuring tools. The developed method was evaluated in one of the major emergency centers in Tehran City, Iran. Results: Lean principles were defined based on special features and dynamic environment of emergency department. Moreover, according to the Goodson’s method, a specific questionnaire was designed as the measuring tool. Conclusion: Fast measurement by this model helps administrators of health sector to identify lean implementation problems in the minimum amount of time without wasting resources. This method is a parallel and complementary approach to other evaluating methods.

Keywords

• Performance Evaluation
• Emergency Medical Services, Hospitals
• Lean Principles