Lean readiness within emergency departments : a conceptual framework

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to assess the lean readiness within emergency departments (EDs) and identify the key quality practices deemed essential for lean system (LS) implementation. Design/methodology/approach: An extensive review of the lean healthcare literature was conducted, including LS implementation within the healthcare sector (both generally and in EDs), best ED quality practices, essential factors for LS implementation within healthcare and lean readiness assessment frameworks. The authors identified six main categories from a literature review (top management and leadership, human resources, patient relations, supplier relations, processes and continuous improvement (CI)), and validated these based on experts’ opinion. Findings: Several factors were identified as crucial for EDs, including top management and leadership, human resources, patient relations, supplier relations, processes and CI. Research limitations/implications: The framework has not yet been tested, which prevents the author from declaring it fit for EDs. Practical implications: This framework will help ED managers determine the factors that will enable/hinder the implementation of LSs within their premises. Originality/value: To the author’s knowledge, this is the first lean readiness assessment framework for EDs and one of the few lean readiness assessment frameworks in the literature.