Lions Manor residents benefit from better health thanks to LEAN training
Patient outcomes at Richmond Lions Manor-Bridgeport have improved by leaps and bounds since adoption of LEAN as a care quality improvement tool.
Richmond Lions Manor’s success story started in 2012, when then-manager Kathy Wong attended a LEAN management course. Inspired, she worked with staff to create a model for “Providing Excellent Resident Care.”
“We became educated in LEAN management and learned about value stream mapping,” said Wong, now retired, but reflecting on the past two years’ worth of work. “We then began our work by returning to basics – going right to the floor to understand resident care needs and how they were being met. We also actively adopted a collective vision to build and sustain a culture of team-based problem solving.”
The care team at Richmond Lions Manor-Bridgeport have improved clinical outcomes for residents by impressive margins, thanks to facility-wide adoption of LEAN management tools.
The rest, as they say, is history
The improvements in clinical outcomes at Richmond Lions Manor since 2012 have been significant. They include:
- An increase in hand hygiene compliance from 79% (2012 baseline) to 96% (2013 year-to-date).
- A decrease in incidence of falls from an average of 20 per month in the last quarter of 2012 to an average of 14 per month in the first quarter of 2013.
- A decrease in UTI rates from an average of 22 per month in the two months prior to implementation, to an average of 7 per month in the two months following implementation of LEAN management.
There’s no “I” in teamwork
The LEAN process at Lions Manor has led to more clarity and communication among the team, resulting in staff and managers that are better equipped to identify and correct issues as they arise. Most significantly, RLM-B didn’t have to take any ‘drastic’ measures to achieve these results. Rather, all LEAN work was easily incorporated into regular work flows.
The LEAN daily management system implemented at Richmond Lions Manor-Bridgeport consists of:
- Twice-daily quality improvement huddles.
- Team-based problem solving, using the Lean A3 process.
- Regular audits of clinical practices.
- A visual controls system for tracking and problem-solving around resident care indicators.
- Regular resident status assessments, as well as clearly defined standard work for the manager and frontline leaders.
Success of the Lions Manor team has hinged on two critical factors. First, there has been clear and visible leadership. Secondly, the entire interdisciplinary team has been fully involved.
“All Lions Manor staff and management should be very proud of what they’ve achieved together, and all for the benefit of resident care and experience, ” said Dermot Kelly, Interim COO, VCH Richmond.
Watch a video about LEAN at RLM-B:
LEAN training can benefit your team:
Email the Regional Lean Transformation Team to learn how, VCHLeanEducation@vch.ca.