Integrating lean management to breast cancer center: Case study in Turkey

In recent years the financial crisis has forced all the private and public companies to reduce costs as long as most of them had to lay off many workers, or eventually dismiss them. Lean is a learning system which encourages staff to perform better in technical operation which in turn, increases process performance; so, it improves safety, quality and staff morale, reducing costs, all at the same time, revealing new opportunities to improve effectiveness. This paper focuses initially on a general description on the most adopted lean tools and practices, and the transformation process, through a systematic literature review and analysis of the various waste in the system, followed by a research on the most successful lean implementations in hospitals. Subsequently, a deeper analysis in the Health Care system in Turkey: Lean Thinking has been studied in the Breast Cancer Center of Istanbul. An initial map of the current patient flow situation was drawn, with the process view where the care is seen as the outcome of a sequential series of steps, from the initial registration of the patient to the discharge. Through the application of some Lean tools, adapted from the Manufacturing to the Health Care system, little but consistent changes are proposed, aiming to minimize the waiting time of the patient, improve safety and reduce the congestion of the bottlenecks of the process, such as operating rooms or specific machineries.