This document discusses single piece flow in healthcare using lean principles to improve efficiency and reduce waste. It explains that in a lean hospital, patients and tasks flow through the system with minimal delay between each value-added activity. This is accomplished by allowing only small amounts of waiting or queuing. It then outlines the different states of flow a patient can be in as they proceed through care, such as undergoing a process, waiting to be processed, or waiting for a batch to accumulate. Finally, it provides some potential solutions like lean layouts, point-of-care testing, eliminating batching, and using clear signals to improve flow.

1. Flow In Healthcare: Single Piece Flow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr67i5SdXiM

2. Lean Flow in Healthcare
In an Lean hospital patient or task flows through the system from one value added to
activity to next with minimal delay in between.
This is accomplished by allowing only small amounts of Waiting (or Queuing)
ServerCustomer Arrivals Customer Departures
Person (Doc, RN etc.) or
Resource (Scanner, CT Scan etc.)
Patient or thing (Lab sample etc.)
Queue (Waiting Line)
Reality Check: Queue

3. States of Flow
As patients proceed through a healthcare delivery system, at any time they are either:
SN States of Flow
1 Undergoing a value added process by a server
2 Undergoing a non-value added process by a server
3 Waiting: to be processed by a server that is busy with others
4 Waiting: to be processed by a server that is not busy with others
5 Waiting: for a batch to accumulate before an action
6 Waiting: for an entity before further processing
Waiting
to be
Triaged
1
Triage Patient
escorted to
Room
Wait to
get blood
drawn
Blood
drawn
Sample
taken
to Lab
Sample
waits to
gather full
batch
Sample
batch
processed
& result
posted
Wait for
Doc to
realize lab
results back
….
11 2 23 3 45
6
Source: Lean for Healthcare; The University of Tennessee

4. Potential Solutions to Improve Flow
Waiting
to be
Triaged
1
Triage Patient
escorted to
Room
Wait to get
blood
drawn
Blood
drawn
Sample
taken to
Lab
Sample
waits to
gather full
batch
Sample
batch
processed
& result
posted
Wait for
Doc to
realize lab
results back
…..
11 2 23 3 45
6
Lean
Layout
POC
Testing
Eliminate
Batching
Clear
Signals
Source: Lean for Healthcare; The University of Tennessee