Lean healthcare: Implementation of a Lean system in a community pharmacy: Case study

• Autor(a) principal: Tavares, Maria Inês Henriques de Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/27479
• topic: Lean Management; Community pharmacy; Eficácia -- Efficiency; Valor -- Value; Lean management; Farmácia comunitária

Lean is a process improvement-oriented methodology that focuses on efficiency and waste elimination, leading to increased value delivered to the customer and return for the organization. Considering the current conjuncture, it becomes even more relevant to implement a management methodology that increases efficiency, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises. Currently, there is a gap in the literature, with most of the cases studied in the healthcare sector referring to hospitals. This case study was carried out in a community pharmacy that already has a pilot project underway to implement the Lean methodology, allowing the identification of the difficulties experienced by the team in this process. This analysis leads to the suggestion of an implementation project, which will allow the pharmacy to improve its performance, through the suggestion of appropriate tools to use according to the identified needs. Data collection and analysis were carried out through a focus group, direct observation, document analysis, and descriptive statistics. This implementation project allows, on the one hand, to contribute to the database of case studies in this sector and, on the other hand, to generate operational results in the pharmacy in question, reducing its waste and increasing value for the customer and the organization.