Waste reduction in healthcare service by value stream mapping implementation

For years, a serious issue regarding patient waiting time has persisted. Initially, at first glance, one may feel that the patient is not concerned for having to wait for the treatment. However, it was revealed from a survey by the service sector that the overall satisfaction of consumers is affected by waiting experience and is usually termed as unfavourable. Data collected from several clinics in Malaysia showed that the overall waiting time of patients ranges from 18 to 85 minutes. It was found that 21% of patients expressed dissatisfaction and specified the experience to be unreasonable. This research study was done in a government health clinic in Melaka, Malaysia, which had patients and workers involved in the healthcare system. Value Stream Mapping was employed to identify existing waste in the healthcare system process. Based on the results, avoidable waste like staff attitude, redundant processes, unclear information and unsuitable clinic layout was found to exist, which resulted in long waiting times for the patient. Suggestions have been made for the healthcare organisation to employ methods involving Kanban, 5S, user interface and re-layout of the current system to enable the utilisation of more value-added time by both the staff as well as the patient to decrease the waiting time.