A lean approach on hospital flow management

The rising hospitals costs and their impact on management are a problem faced by several health institutions and part of this cost corresponds to hospital logistics that is caused by aspects such as unstandardized processes and inadequate layout and equipment. Seeking to propose improvements for such problems we identified the critical phases of the logistics operation in hospital’s complex environments, since literature does not properly approach such theme. The final analysis is based on the identification and analysis of value streams, through value stream mapping, interviews, observations and document analysis. Therefore, despite hospital’s complex logistics operations, its study and analysis provide a better identification of costs, layout problems, standardization, as well as non-value adding activities and bottlenecks, thus improving operations and therefore allowing cost reduction. This study’ practical implications are the identification of improvement opportunities in the management of hospitals as a way to provide practitioners with means to improve health-relates logistics processes