Lean Thinking in chemotherapy outpatient service planning at AOUS

In several healthcare institutions, Operations Management has allowed the implementation of new organizational and management models, to improve service quality and reduce waste. In this paper, the authors consider the Center for Chemotherapeutic Administration of the main hospital in Siena. The objective is to maximize the throughput of the Center, given the current resource availability. The analysis of the current situation and the development of the improvement project have been carried out using the lean approach. We illustrate the implementation of lean concepts and their impact on key performance indicators. Moreover, we report in detail on the use of a mathematical model of the administration process, and how it affected organizational efficiency, expressed in terms of resource utilization rate (chairs for infusion), patients’ waiting times and total hours of personnel overtime.