While being Lean can mean something different to every healthcare organization, it is always about reducing cost through the elimination of variation and waste in order to provide the best, most efficient patient care, according to an article on the Healthcare Finance News.

Healthcare systems are using design and construction to maximize physical structures; implementing just-in-time inventory strategies and using technology to improve processes and eliminate wast.

It is not difficult to find examples of what healthcare organizations ARE doing. But, what aren’t they doing? Are there areas of waste and variation within healthcare organizations that aren’t yet on leadership’s radar?

One example is intersite logistics, or healthcare transportation, the physical movement of patient and business critical supplies across a healthcare organization’s entire network.

Transportation impacts almost every element and every department of a health system. Some examples of waste include:

• Extra inventory at facilities sitting on shelves, risking expiration that could instead be shared system-wide and better utilized

• Capital equipment sitting idle when it could be shared/used by another facility

Read the article.