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Lean implementation within healthcare: imaging as fertile ground

Eloise Radcliffe (Faculty of Health Sciences, Macmillan Survivorship Research Group, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK)
Maria Kordowicz (Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK)
Caroline Mak (Department of Population Health Sciences, King's College London, London, UK)
Guy Shefer (Department of Population Health Sciences, King's College London, London, UK)
David Armstrong (Department of Population Health Sciences, King's College London, London, UK)
Patrick White (Department of Population Health Sciences, King's College London, London, UK)
Mark Ashworth (Department of Population Health Sciences, King's College London, London, UK)

Journal of Health Organization and Management

ISSN: 1477-7266

Article publication date: 14 October 2020

Issue publication date: 16 October 2020

553

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the barriers and enablers to lean implementation as part of an imaging quality improvement programme from a socio-cultural perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

An in-depth 33 month ethnographic study, using observation and qualitative interviews, examined the process of lean implementation as part of an improvement programme.

Findings

Implementation of lean was more successful compared with other reports of lean in healthcare settings. Key enablers of lean were high levels of multidisciplinary staff involvement and engagement; the professional credibility of facilitators and clinicians as early adopters, all within a wider culture of relatively strong inter-professional relationships in the imaging department. These enablers combined with the more routinised and standardised nature of imaging pathways compared to some other acute specialties suggest that imaging is fertile ground for lean, linked to the manufacturing origins of lean.

Practical implications

When introducing lean within healthcare settings, special attention needs to be paid to the specific healthcare context and the existing cultures of inter-professional relationships. Fostering an improvement culture and engagement with training, together with adequate financial resource, are a key to contributing to the level of acceptability of an improvement tool such as lean.

Originality/value

This ethnographic study, bringing together rich multi-source data, has provided a detailed insight into the cultural workings of the process of lean implementation within a complex healthcare system.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express particular thanks to all members of the TOHETI (Transforming Outcomes and Health Economics Through Imaging) implementation team at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust for facilitating access, for openly sharing their unique insights and for their invaluable engagement throughout this ethnographic research.We would also like to thank the funders, Guy's and St. Thomas' Charity.

Citation

Radcliffe, E., Kordowicz, M., Mak, C., Shefer, G., Armstrong, D., White, P. and Ashworth, M. (2020), "Lean implementation within healthcare: imaging as fertile ground", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 34 No. 8, pp. 869-884. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-02-2020-0050

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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