Casual Articles - Business

Medical Billing - Hiring A Support Person
The medical billing software company is a tough environment for everyone. However, it is probably the hardest on a support person for a variety of reasons. So when you're putting your company together, what do you look for in a support person? What qualities should they have? What training should they have? What kind of temperament should they have? Yes, this is very important and will be explained, as will everything else that you're going to want to look for in a support pe

er specimens. A new schedule significantly reduced motion waste.

Equipment Uptime
Improved equipment uptime - On average 3 pieces of equipment down per week. Now through the use of TPM, they haven't had any down time in 8 weeks.

Space Savings
Using 5S, one lab freed up enough space to add three more needed stations without increasing existing floor space.

Processing Improvement
One area doubled their processing volume with marginal increase in staff and has sustained it for the last 6 months.

Rework Elimination
Originally 66% rework - now virtually none.

These results are proof that Lean works in Healthcare and ar

Life as a Private Enterprise
Consider your life as a business enterprise. Overshadowing everything else is a business goal and a strategy to reach that goal. Also there is a business philosophy, the red thread that gives meaning of existence to the enterprise. Now consider your life. You need one or several goals, immaterial and material ones. What is important to you in life? Consider that which you want to achieve, where you want to be and also what kind of people you want to be around. In thi

Over the last couple years, we have been working with Healthcare organizations to adapt Lean to their complex processes in laboratory and hospital environments. Predictably, there was much skepticism from Clinicians and administrators alike - and rightly so. They were perfectly justified in asking - 'how does a thinking that grew mainly out of the automotive industry apply to the healthcare environment?'

The answer is, 'it applies perfectly'.

But giving an answer like that does not (and should not) convince all healthcare providers to blindly accept Lean and charge forward in the process transformation.

It took a few very courageous and visionary leaders to step forward and attempt applications within their environments - even if they were still a little (or a lot) skeptical.

Within a matter of a few weeks, the skepticism faded and the results began to appear. It works! And who would have believed that in a scientific profession there would be such a vast amount of opportunity to remove 'non-value' or waste.

The 'non-value' activities were not the people trying to do something wrong. In fact, the people were just working at trying to provide the best service, both in quality and turnaround time. The barrier was the existing 'system'. It forced them to do things, which actually hindered them from providing their clients with the best service.

Once we applied Lean, and removed the non-value added activities, they found they were able to respond and serve their clients faster and better. In fact, they could respond to more clients while using the same number of people and equipment. The result was higher satisfaction for the patients/clients and for the staff while lowering their costs to provide the service.

While none of these healthcare cases have achieved perfection - their staff have moved closer to it and they have discovered a structured and practical method for attaining the level of service they and their clients desire and expect.

Here are some recent examples of typical results:

MRI processing time
20% increase in patients per day

Elimination of entire processing areas
Processing done in one lab instead of two without any new equipment expenditures.

Waiting Times
Found that techs in x-ray areas were waiting for up to 30% of their time, now they can use their time more efficiently and service the patient faster.

Overtime
Eliminated overtime by reducing the batch sizes and creating flow.

Lead-Time
Reduced lead-time for test results from 8 hours to 2-3 hours by decreasing batches and eliminating waste.

Motion
Delivery personnel were spending most of their time walking (up to 50%) to deliver specimens. A new schedule significantly reduced motion waste.

Equipment Uptime
Improved equipment uptime - On average 3 pieces of equipment down per week. Now through the use of TPM, they haven't had any down time in 8 weeks.

Space Savings
Using 5S, one lab freed up enough space to add three more needed stations without increasing existing floor space.

Processing Improvement
One area doubled their processing volume with marginal increase in staff and has sustained it for the last 6 months.

Rework Elimination
Originally 66% rework - now virtually none.

These results are proof that Lean works in Healthcare and are

Closeout Merchandise: How A Product Become A Closeout
Closeout merchandise is lucrative because of its nature. Merchandise is considered to be a closeout when its original seller loses the original sales venue for it.In other words, closeout merchandise can be a case of socks which were manufactured for an upcoming movie. Once the movie is no longer shown in the theaters, the movie licensed socks need to be sold as a closeout.Since the original event the socks were produced for has passed, the socks must be sold at a ste

d attempt applications within their environments - even if they were still a little (or a lot) skeptical.