Annals of Emergency Medicine
Volume 54, Issue 4 , Pages 504-510 , October 2009

Use of Lean in the Emergency Department: A Case Series of 4 Hospitals

  • Eric W. Dickson, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and UMass Memorial Medical Group, UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, MA
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress for reprints: Eric W. Dickson, MD, UMass Memorial Medical Group, 365 Plantation Street, Biotech One, 3rd Floor, Worcester, MA 01655; 508-334-0691
    • ,
  • Zlatko Anguelov, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress for correspondence: Zlatko Anguelov MD, Office of Marketing and Communications, UI Health Care, 200 Hawkins Drive, WL 4155, Iowa City, IA 52242; 319-353-3022, Fax 319-384-4638
    • ,
  • Diana Vetterick, RN, BS

      Affiliations

    • Florida Hospital Emergency Services, Orlando, FL
    • ,
  • Andrew Eller, BSN, RN

      Affiliations

    • St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Texas Medical Center, Houston, TX
    • ,
  • Sabi Singh, MS, MA

      Affiliations

    • Office of Operational Excellence and Quality/Safety, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA

Received 28 October 2008 ,Revised 12 March 2009 ,Accepted 23 March 2009.

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  18. Dickson E, Singh S, Cheung DS, et al. Application of Lean manufacturing techniques in the emergency department. J Emerg Med. In press. DOI: 10.1016/j.emergmed.2007.11.108.
  19. Dickson E, Anguelov Z, Bott P, et al. Sustainable improvement of care quality in a university hospital-based emergency department using Lean. Int J Six Sigma Competitive Advantage. 2008;4:289–304
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 Provide feedback on this article at the journal's Web site, www.annemergmed.com.

 Supervising editor: Donald M. Yealy, MD

 Author contributions: EWD conceived of the study, contacted the contributors, and oversaw the process of collecting and processing the data. ZA was the main writer of the article and coordinator of the efforts to edit and finalize the article. EWD and ZA interpreted the results. DV and AE contributed data to the comparative study. SS is the chief coordinator of Lean implementation at UI Health Care and was instrumental in the initiation of Lean at the ED and supervisor of the follow-ups. EWD takes responsibility for the paper as a whole.

 Funding and support: By Annals policy, all authors are required to disclose any and all commercial, financial, and other relationships in any way related to the subject of this article that might create any potential conflict of interest. The authors have stated that no such relationships exist. See the Manuscript Submission Agreement in this issue for examples of specific conflicts covered by this statement.

 Publication date: Available online May 6, 2009.

PII: S0196-0644(09)00287-X

doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2009.03.024

Annals of Emergency Medicine
Volume 54, Issue 4 , Pages 504-510 , October 2009

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