ABSTRACT
As with many other European countries, Iceland has an ageing population and a rising prevalence of long-term conditions. Improving service efficiency and maintaining quality in the context of increasing demand is an important driver for change. Landspítali is the National University Hospital in Iceland and is a large hospital complex. Maintaining quality improvement initiatives had been challenging. After reviewing options, the hospital senior leadership team decided to apply Lean methods.
Landspítali started its Lean journey in 2012 with strategic assistance from McKinsey, the Karolinska Hospital in Sweden, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in the USA. The first carefully selected improvement projects were all successful which gave the Lean journey substantial support and energy within the hospital. Extensive training in Lean methodology and change management has been one of the keys to successful implementation as well as a strong project management central unit or kaizen promotion office.
Staff in the hospital have used various tools to implement Lean thinking such as 5S, kaizen events, 3P, Gemba, improvement boards, Rapid Process Improvement Workshops, some of which are described in this chapter.
