Reduce waste is important because it has a symmetrical impact on pre-tax profits. In other words: less waste = more profit.
We have a greater tendency, as human beings, to explore new territories than to more efficiently manage what we already have.
Managing is a tedious and often unrecognized task, but it is a job we must approach with energy.
We define waste as any task or expense that does not add value to the end customer and their needs.
The main concepts are explained in the drawing above.
From an economic perspective, to double profits, it would be necessary to double the hospital's capacity and business. Imagine the investment for a large hospital to obtain double the profit.
But if we can reduce 1/3 of the waste we will have achieved another 10% profit, that is, double the profit. This is the true meaning of reduce waste.
But how can we reduce waste?
Quality management would help to work on this in a continuous manner. It must involve several people and be well structured, as we must MEASURE all processes and their results. In industry, we are used to measuring almost everything. This is not the case in the health sector. Healing, eliminating pain and suffering is more important.
But managers must work like jugglers who keep several balls in the air.
Taking care of patients' health, organizing the logistics of the entire hospital, meet the requirements of professionals from all teams, whether clinical or administrative, and maintain the financial health of the institution. All goals are important, but without economic efficiency it is difficult to meet other demands.
Within technologies, the methodology Lean stands out for seeking leaner processes and analyzing the real value of each task. Many of Toyota's methodologies, applied for years in the industry, are now valued to improve hospital processes.
Having complete information to be able to compare and measure, invoice and receive revenue for this service is probably the first step to knowing the size of the monster we have to dominate.
Even if a quality structure is set up for patient safety and waste, the issue never ends there. As with almost all goals, we have to participate, raise awareness and create a group culture with knowledge and tools to be able to achieve the goals.
If transporting products is a cost, then having 15% or 20% of medicines dispensed by the Central Pharmacy returned is a waste, to say the least. Complaints from professionals about not having all the necessary elements ready and at their disposal and having to travel frequently to the delivery location are common complaints in many countries.
Products that are used and assigned to general expenses do not help to manage efficiently, as we do not know which process generates profit and which generates loss.
Product loss due to inventory deviations, which can reach 18% in many cases, must be controlled and reduced. Automatic electronic control helps to control efficiently, whereas the information that must be entered into the system, whether on paper or electronically, makes daily activities more difficult and contains more errors and incomplete information.
Improper fractionation of products and medicines are reasons for expenses that do not add value to the end customer and are wasteful. Costly cleaning products can be fractionated within the hospital before being dispensed, as well as medicines.
When we have two people performing a single task, it is very likely that we are facing waste, perhaps due to a lack of adequate training.
Conclusion
Even without reaching any resolution, if you measure waste, you will have already made great progress, as it will provoke a change in attitude among senior management to allocate resources towards this end.
As most profitable organizations are the ones that invest the most in quality.