title: Production flow analysis: a tool for designing a lean hospital.
abstract: Production flow analysis (PFA) was used in the planning process for a new acute care hospital. The PFA demonstrated that functional organisation--for example, with centralised medical imaging-- generates a lot of back and forth patient transfers between functional units. This to-and-fro patient flow increases lead times of care processes and also exposes the patients to unnecessary complications. PFA produced an ideal patient flow model and layout model for the acute care hospital. Thus, PFA revealed information for use in proximity ranking of different units of the hospital; the planning team then decided which units should be placed next to each other. Medical imaging should be essentially ubiquitous, to achieve simple, high-velocity patient flow. Thus, a modern decentralized layout model for medical imaging was planned. Furthermore, PFA enables optimizing transfer routes for patients and also, e.g., lift capacity in the hospital.
authors.affiliation: SKA-Research OY.
authors.forename: Sauli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karvonen
authors.forename: Heikki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Korvenranta
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paatela
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seppälä
mesh_terms: D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005387:Finland; D006749:Hospital Design and Construction / Q000379:methods*; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015274:Interdepartmental Relations; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010360:Patient Transfer; D011357:Product Line Management; D011872:Radiology Department, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012984:Software; D012985:Software Design; D013597:Systems Analysis