Improving the medical records department processes by lean management

BACKGROUND: Lean management is a process improvement technique to identify waste actions and processes to eliminate them. The benefits of Lean for healthcare organizations are that first, the quality of the outcomes in terms of mistakes and errors improves. The second is that the amount of time taken through the whole process significantly improves. AIMS: The purpose of this paper is to improve the Medical Records Department (MRD) processes at Ayatolah-Kashani Hospital in Isfahan, Iran by utilizing Lean management. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This research was applied and an interventional study. The data have been collected by brainstorming, observation, interview, and workflow review. The study population included MRD staff and other expert staff within the hospital who were stakeholders and users of the MRD. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The MRD were initially taught the concepts of Lean management and then formed into the MRD Lean team. The team then identified and reviewed the current processes subsequently; they identified wastes and values, and proposed solutions. RESULTS: The findings showed that the MRD units (Archive, Coding, Statistics, and Admission) had 17 current processes, 28 wastes, and 11 values were identified. In addition, they offered 27 comments for eliminating the wastes. CONCLUSION: The MRD is the critical department for the hospital information system and, therefore, the continuous improvement of its services and processes, through scientific methods such as Lean management, are essential. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The study represents one of the few attempts trying to eliminate wastes in the MRD.