To help address rising costs and improve patient care, Georgia Tech will begin offering a new professional certificate in lean healthcare this September. Medical professionals such as physicians, nurses, quality mangers, laboratory personnel and health care executives will learn lean management principles – a set of tools derived mostly from the Toyota Production System widely used in manufacturing – that helps identify and steadily eliminate waste from an organization’s operations.
Participants will work one-on-one with a lean health care expert to discover lean principles through health care simulations, apply lean thinking to their organizations and begin identifying areas of opportunity. The certificate program consists of four courses: Lean Healthcare Introduction – A Case Study Review, How to Apply Lean Thinking to Healthcare Organizations, Applying Value Stream Mapping and A3 Problem-Solving Methods, and Turnover Time Reduction.
“In this era of decreasing reimbursements and increasing costs, lean methodology can ensure that health care organizations remain viable and safe,” said Richard Mitchell, M.D., medical director of Georgia Tech’s Healthcare Performance Group. “Obtaining your certification as a lean practitioner can put you in a position to help lead your organization into the future.”
For six years, Georgia Tech has been working with health care professionals to conduct lean assessments, teach basic lean concepts, develop value stream maps to analyze the flow of materials and information, and implement rapid process improvement projects. The Healthcare Performance Group has worked with more than 15 hospitals across the state.
“Lean helped us get to the root of our problems in health care: waste. Until you can see it, you don’t appreciate how rampant it is,” said Leigh Hamby, M.D., chief medical officer of Piedmont Healthcare. “Lean tools help you identify and eliminate waste.”
The first hands-on course in the certificate series – How to Apply Lean Thinking to Healthcare Organizations – will be held Oct. 3 through 7 in Atlanta. Enrollment in the courses, totaling 5.4 CEUs, is $3,780. Each paid attendee can register a colleague at no cost. For more information or to register, call 404-385-3501 or visit www.pe.gatech.edu/leanhealth.
For more information on health care performance improvement services offered by Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, contact Kelley Hundt (404-894-4607); E-mail: (kelley.hundt@innovate.gatech.edu).
About Enterprise Innovation Institute:
The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute helps companies, entrepreneurs, economic developers and communities improve their competitiveness through the application of science, technology and innovation. It is one of the most comprehensive university-based programs of business and industry assistance, technology commercialization and economic development in the nation.
Enterprise Innovation Institute
Georgia Institute of Technology
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Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA
Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail (john.toon@innovate.gatech.edu).
Writer: Nancy Fullbright