Lean Healthcare Annual Report

Columbus Community Hospital uses Lean Healthcare, a process improvement methodology, leadership style and management system that emphasizes eliminating waste to add value for patients.

It looks for waste or non-value-added activities in: overproduction, inventory, defects, processing, transportation, waiting, motion and people. Once these areas of waste are identified, Lean encourages employees to use open communication and teamwork to make these processes less wasteful and more efficient.

The ultimate goal of Lean is to establish a culture in which all of an organization’s employees are constantly looking for ways to reduce waste, streamline processes and improve patient care. When implemented correctly, Lean works by creating a culture of improvement and problem-solving at all levels of the organization. It encourages all employees to look at how their work is being done to see if there are ways to make that work more efficient.

Over time, these improvements in processes help Lean organizations save critical resources; improve the safety, quality and flow of patient care; increase patient satisfaction and the hospital’s return on investment; reduce staff turnover; and decrease patients’ wait times and lengths of stay.

Since CCH started using Lean Healthcare initiatives in late 2016, they have led to numerous improvements throughout the hospital.

View the LEAN Annual Report for 2022-23.

View the LEAN Annual Report for 2021-22.

View the LEAN Annual Report for 2020-21.