Lean Tools to Improve Efficiency and Effectiveness in Sri Lankan Private Hospital Sector

Abstract

Lean tools can be identified as one of the main practices that are being used in different industries around the world to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the organizational process while adding value to the end customers. When it comes to the private medical sector in Sri Lanka, it is important to uplift the quality standards to ensure customer satisfaction and to become helpful to the public medical sector, and implementing lean practices can be an ideal way to uplift the private medical sector in the country. This paper aims to examine the practical applications that can be used to enhance the impact of lean practices in the supply chain function of the private hospital sector in Sri Lanka. The authors gathered data from in-depth interviews conducted with supply chain professionals such as executives and managers of the private hospital sector and focused more on the suggestions of the interviewees on improving the impact of lean practices on the supply chain system of the Sri Lankan private hospital sector. The final results and conclusions of the study are extracted through thematic analysis which is used to evaluate data gathered through in-depth interviews and the practical applications that can be implemented in the private medical sector to maximize the effectiveness of current lean supply chain practices in the Sri Lankan private hospital sector which provides a considerable impact on the overall performance of the private healthcare sector of the country such as value stream mapping, Focus PDCA, Improve Staff engagement and Reduce medical errors has been identified as the findings of the study which can be beneficial in terms of reducing organizational cost, improving service quality and, eliminating wastage while enhancing overall organizational performances.