Page 14 - Hospital Authority Convention 2017

Symposiums
HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2017

S12.3 Inter-professional Collaboration 14:30 Convention Hall A

Inter-professional Collaboration on Lean Improvement Programmes
Lai PBS
Department of Surgery, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong
The multi-disciplinary approach is an essential element in quality healthcare. In this team-based service delivery, we have to
ensure the right people with the right skills and competences are caring for patients and performing various tasks.
The core idea of “lean” in healthcare is to maximise patient value while minimising wastes. WISER (acronym for “We
Innovate, Service Excels Regularly”) is a movement to streamline work processes and achieve staff engagement with the
help of lean tools. Healthcare teams can re-design or refine the care processes that are clogged up by wastes and achieve
improvement in quality and safety as well as staff morale, reduction of turn-around time and cost; and increase in efficiency
and productivity.

The healthcare team can change the workplace culture by understanding the elements and the underlying lean philosophy
so as to implement it through alignment of “Purpose, Process and People” (The 3Ps). Among the 3Ps, perhaps “People”
would be the most relevant for healthcare because healthcare is, at its heart, a service delivered by healthcare professionals.
Success of lean transformation counts on engagement and collaboration of members of different professions in the
healthcare team, as well as their willingness and ability to tackle complex clinical problems together.

Healthcare teams can develop a culture of continuous improvement through training, engagement and implementing the
Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycles. Examples of lean projects (which include initiatives to improve the consultation flow of
the specialist outpatient clinic, re-design of workflow in the acute surgical wards to facilitate discharge) would be used to
illustrate how the inter-professional collaborations could lead to reduction of wastes and improvement in quality of healthcare
processes which is translated into higher care of value for patient.

Wednesday, 17 May

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