Remaking Rosa Medical Center: A 5-Step Approach to Transitioning with Lean

The strategic goal of implementing Lean in organizations is to streamline processes, which further involves a linking of the enterprise to its network of suppliers and distributors. In this chapter, the case of Rosa Medical Center in lean healthcare management is used to illustrate how the different lean concepts may be contextualized in a healthcare setting for a multi-provider polyclinic. The discussion follows a step-by-step approach, focusing on identifying and eliminating specific sources of waste in the value stream. Increasingly, this strategy has been applied to healthcare organizations, although the inherent differences between healthcare and manufacturing systems must be judiciously considered. We further review different points of criticism to lean thinking and attempt to provide insights on how these challenges may be addressed.