Lean information management: the use of observational data in health care

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast traditional data collection methodologies employed in health care with more practical observational methods which are closely aligned with Lean thinking. When combined with problem solving, observational approaches achieve demonstrable improvements in clinical outcomes, productivity and efficiency. The paper aims to describe the changes in mindset and behaviour that are required to adopt the observational methods.

The approach is to describe and evaluate case study examples on the use of observational data in the National Health Service in the UK. This is then used to derive generic principles about the wider application of observational data in health care.

Traditional data collection methodologies are often insufficient to expose the root cause of a problem and therefore may result in little or no action. The observational methods identify the root cause and as such offer a much more practical and real‐time way of solving process‐related problems.

The observational methods of collecting data described here offer staff at all levels of the organisation practical approaches to preventing mistakes and errors in health care processes.

The case studies described here support the reintroduction of observational techniques used by the early pioneers of productivity. The originality of the paper is in the use of these observational methods in a wide range of clinical settings to provoke changes in working practices.