Lean Practitioner for the Diagnostic Laboratory

37 Contact hours ($1,295.00) Estimated Course Completion: Online/Work at your own pace

Greetings and Welcome to the Lean Practitioner Certificate Program for the Diagnostic Laboratory!

The Course Description

In this online certificate program, you will learn the skills to serve as a Lean Practitioner in the diagnostic laboratory. As a Lean Practitioner, you will understand the principles, methods and techniques of the Toyota Production System. In this role, you will learn how to develop, educate and mentor Lean teams to establish or enhance an organizational Lean foundation. The practitioner works with leadership to set up an environment of solving problems, collecting and evaluating data, eliminating waste and producing value. The goal of the Lean Practitioner is to assist the organization optimize workflow and redesign wasteful processes. You will be a critical part of the team by understanding the path to cost savings by including culture, people and processes.

Course Text

We will use the following book throughout this course: The New Lean Healthcare Pocket Guide XL – Tools for the Elimination of Waste in Hospitals, Clinics and Other Healthcare Facilities. Click here to review the book:

• The Learning Objectives for this program include the following:

1. Introduction to Lean
   • Explain the principles, methodology and tools of LEAN-to specific healthcare work processes
   • Translate the difference between value-add and non-value-add activities (waste)
   • Interpret how to execute a process redesign effort and design a waste-free process
   • Explain the principles, methodology and tools of LEAN-to specific healthcare work processes
   • Translate the difference between value-add and non-value-add activities (waste)
   • Interpret how to execute a process redesign effort and design a waste-free process
2. Lean Management
   • Interpret the principles of Lean to foster the development of a laboratory-specific improvement strategy, philosophy, method and tool set
   • Explain the standard leadership practices necessary to drive Lean management
   • Translate the lessons and methods from past quality experts to the current environment
3. 5S Workplace Organization
   • Describe a 5S event in the workplace that requires planning, preparation and leadership oversite
   • Demonstrate a 5 S plan to clean, organize and remove clutter by the assistance of all employees
   • Discuss a weekly 5S checklist to sustain the effort
   • Review an auditing process to ensure 5 S compliance
4. Observation: Go and See and Ask Why
   • Identify processes with the potential for defects
   • Describe types of waste applicable to healthcare
   • Explain how the 4 rules of work design effectively translate into healthcare process improvements
   • Outline activities to conduct a “go and see observation event”
5. Value Stream Mapping
   • Summarize wasteful activities in a current state map
   • Estimate the origin of non-value-added activities within the workflow
   • Describe redesign ideas for a future state map to contain only value add processes
6. A3 Problem Solving
   • Follow A 3 background/logic
   • Evaluate/interpret each A 3 Element
   • Formulate an A 3, – organize each element of an A 3 diagram for your lab
7. Kaizen Events
   • Describe the meaning, process and application of a Kaizen event
   • Explain the Lean tools used
   • Demonstrate the process steps of a Kaizen Event

Course Content

Though this course you will learn techniques and skills that will qualify you to assist your organization systematically eliminate waste and produce value. This certificate program includes the following required activities:

• Several instructional videos
• Quiz – (7) One quiz in each module
• (3) Reflection points to encourage critical thinking
• Course project: The course project includes 7 assignments. Each assignment within this project will illustrate the application of several Lean tools learned throughout this course applicable to your live environment.

(7) Assignments

Virtual Group Instruction Available as a part of this course.

We provide live virtual classrooms to assist teams explore lessons in depth and apply the concepts to their live environment. The virtual classrooms includes weekly sessions with the instructor intended to allow teams to ask questions regarding the content, share lessons learned with other learners and brainstorm direction for change. Contact your instruction to learn more information on virtual team sessions.