Economy brings layoffs at Kearney hospital – Top Local Stories – News : KHAS-TV
Here is a story from Nebraska, local TV news again, about Lean at a hospital. If you visit the link above, you can also see a video with more information than the web text.
Unfortunately, the headline reads, “Economy brings layoffs at Kearney hospital.” This is happening at many hospitals throughout the U.S., as demand for surgery and other services drops as people lose health coverage or delay “elective” surgery to avoid paying out-of-pocket costs. We often say, in the Lean world, that you should not use Lean to drive layoffs — efficiency improvements from Lean (that come from staff involvement) will stop if those improvements lead to direct job loss. Hospitals should (and do) re-deploy employees to other departments or dedicate them to further Lean improvement efforts.
But when you have a drop in demand — that's a different scenario than job losses due to Lean improvements. A company like Toyota has the financial strength to keep employees on board during periods of down demand, but many (or most) hospitals do not.
Kearney's largest employer has laid off 32 employees. Good Samaritan Hospital blaming the economy for the job cuts. The CEO said this was a tough decision. The hospital said layoffs are just part of its plan. It is also looking at a number of other ways to try and save money.
In the details of the story, there is a quote from the hospital CEO, where he talks about Lean efforts:
“Like many others we have embraced the use of lean concept and we continue to look at ways that we can take non value added work out of the work that we do to improve efficiency and improve care we provide to our patients,” said Allen.
He has that right — taking NVA out can improve quality (care) and efficiency at the same time. It doesn't sound like they are using that improvement to drive the layoffs. It sounded like a few small departments were eliminated in their entirety.
Aside from the Healthy Living Center, the hospital will not name any other departments that have been eliminated. However, officials said many of them are non patient care support positions.
Maybe these departments, being “non patient care” were programs that weren't very effective or were a “luxury” that the hospital could no longer afford. Maybe these layoffs aren't as bad, from a Lean standpoint, than if there was, say, a 15% in laboratory personnel because of Lean efficiency improvements.
As with many things, particularly in this economy, there are no easy answers and I'm trying not to judge. Food for thought.
Subscribe via RSS | Lean Blog Main Page | Podcast | Twitter @markgraban
What do you think? Please scroll down (or click) to post a comment. Or please share the post with your thoughts on LinkedIn – and follow me or connect with me there.
Did you like this post? Make sure you don't miss a post or podcast — Subscribe to get notified about posts via email daily or weekly.
Check out my latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation:
Sir, the headline of the article seems very controversial. I don’t think Lean and Layoffs go together. But what can we expect in such gloomy times !! The Indian Manufacturing Industry is on its way to adopting Lean as well. These have been possible by seminars conducted by sir James P. Womack and other Lean evangelists. Hope this good sense prevails for the long run.