Management simulations for Lean healthcare: exploiting the potentials of role-playing

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potentials of role-playing (RP) both in training healthcare (HC) professionals to implement tools and improvement actions based on Lean principles, and in supporting group discussion and the sharing of different competencies for the development of Lean HC. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the case study of an RP simulation called LEAN HEALTHCARE LAB, which is used to train HC professionals at Siena University Hospital. The paper reports and discusses the results of a specific two-day simulation session and of a questionnaire that was distributed to gather feedback from the participants. Findings: The paper verifies the potentials of RP to be a powerful educational and training tool that is able to stimulate the HC participants to apply Lean thinking principles and share their competencies in collaborative decision-making processes. Research limitations/implications: The study provides data in reference to one single simulation session, although the game has already been applied several times in different HC organizations with very similar outcomes. Moreover, a more in-depth analysis of players’ perceptions and decisions could be performed using different tools in addition to the adopted questionnaire. Practical implications: RP games (RPGs) are effective training and educational tools for HC professionals. They offer benefits and learning conditions which are definitely different if compared with more conventional education programs for HC professionals. Originality/value: While previous studies have extensively discussed the potentialities of RPG and simulations in training programs, only a few articles have discussed the RP adoption for Lean thinking and even less to educate HC professionals on Lean principles and tools.