When experts teamed up with doctors and nurses to analyze every step in a patient's journey through the eye clinic at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, what they found was waste.

As Justine Hunter reports in Saturday's Globe and Mail, Hospitals across Canada, the U.S. and Britain have adopted the Toyota/lean concept because it promises a way to manage scarce dollars in the face of escalating costs and growing demand. But is it a fad diet or a lifestyle change?

"We've had Ontario hospitals talking about being ‘lean like Toyota does it.' Then a few years later, the money's been spent without net benefits," said consultant Tim Hill, an expert in adapting Toyota management to health-care settings.

He said many Canadian hospitals haven't figured out how to stay lean because they look at it only as a cost-cutting measure. "As hackneyed as it sounds, this is a journey, not a destination."

The Globe is pleased to have Mr. Hill with us to discuss the state of heath care in Canada - and how hospitals can improve efficiency by taking a cue from the automotive industry.

Tim Hill has been consulting globally for over 25 years, with hundreds of organizations. He is Canada's leader in best practices in Lean process improvement and Human Capital. He is a Consulting Industrial and Organizational Psychologist and an Invited Professor in the Economics, Business and Mathematics Department at King's University College at the University of Western Ontario, where he is listed as an expert on human resources, Lean and corporate social responsibility.

Mr. Hill works with people and organizations that can see value in measurable, continuous improvement led to his concentrating on healthcare and manufacturing - two important segments in Canada's economy.

He writes a regular Lean Insights column for Manufacturing Automation and is the author of "The Future of Lean in Healthcare" in "Applying Lean in Healthcare: A Collection of International Case Studies" due out in September from Productivity Press.

AUTHORS: Justine Hunter and Tim Hill

July 20th, 2009

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail