Complete a Gemba Walk in your place of employment and document your observations. Refer to the SWOT analysis you conducted in Week Three to select the areas in need of improvement and narrow the list of places to conduct your Gemba Walk. While completing your walk, look for ways to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce waste, improve a product, or streamline a process.
Because of the current stay-at-home orders in our COVID-19 health crisis, I will allow an alternative to ensure everyone’s safety. Because of social-distancing orders, conducting a true Gemba Walk may not be possible. For some students they may be able to still conduct a Gemba walk and that is their choice. But for those who are not currently going to your place of employment every day, the alternative is to conduct an informal interview with someone who would have been involved in your Gemba walk if you had conducted one. You may interview informally via telephone, online chatting, however you see fit to gather information to write up in your paper using the headers below.
Write a 3-page report (body text, doesn’t include references) on your observations of your Gemba. Include the following in your report (headers for each section):
1) Include a summary of the organization (e.g., products or services, mission and vision)
2) Provide context (where did you focus your Gemba on and why?)
3) Discuss your Gemba observations:
4) What was the goal of your Gemba?
· Where did you go?
· What did you observe?
· Who did you observe?
· Give a preliminary analysis of your observations.
· List key takeaways.
· List three short-term opportunities and one long-term opportunity to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce waste, improve a product, or streamline a process. (You will be working with 3 of these opportunities in your week 5 assignment)
Cite any references that support your Gemba (e.g., trade or industry publications, government or agency websites, scholarly works, or other sources of similar quality).
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction:
The Gemba Walk is an essential tool used to improve processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and reduce waste by conducting an on-site observation. In this report, we will analyze the observations made during the Gemba Walk conducted in a healthcare organization. The report includes a summary of the organization, the context of the Gemba Walk, and the observations made during the walk. Additionally, we will discuss the goal of the Gemba, key takeaways, and short-term and long-term opportunities to improve the organization’s processes.
1) Summary of the organization:
The healthcare organization provides a wide range of medical services, including primary care, specialty care, and diagnostic services. The organization’s mission is to provide high-quality care to the community while maintaining patient comfort and safety. The organization’s vision is to be recognized as a leader in healthcare innovation, patient care, and community engagement.
2) Context of the Gemba Walk:
The Gemba Walk was conducted in the laboratory section of the organization, where diagnostic services are provided. The laboratory processes include collecting specimens from patients, processing the samples, and delivering the results to physicians. The focus of the Gemba Walk was to identify areas of improvement in the laboratory’s processes, minimizing wait times for patients and improving the quality of diagnostic results.
3) Gemba Observations:
The goal of the Gemba Walk was to observe the laboratory processes and identify areas of improvement. During the walk, we observed the following:
– Patient waiting time: We observed that patients were waiting for an extended period before receiving their test results.
– Specimen collection process: The process of collecting specimens from patients was time-consuming. Nurses and lab technicians could have easily collaborated to speed up this process.
– Sample processing: The processing of the samples was time-consuming and required multiple steps. Additionally, some samples were delayed in processing, causing further delays in delivering results to physicians.
Preliminary analysis of the observations revealed that there was a need to streamline the laboratory processes to reduce wait times for patients and improve the quality of diagnostic results. The key takeaways from the Gemba Walk were that the laboratory staff must collaborate to improve the process and ensure that the patients’ wait times are minimized.
Short-term and long-term opportunities to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce waste, improve a product, or streamline a process:
Short-term opportunities:
– Collaboration between nurses and lab technicians to speed up the specimen collection process.
– Automating the sample processing process to improve accuracy and speed up processing time.
– Implementing a system to prioritize tests based on their urgency, allowing faster delivery of critical results to physicians.
Long-term opportunity:
– Implementing a continuous improvement process to monitor laboratory processes and develop ongoing improvements to reduce wait times and improve the quality of diagnostic results.
References:
National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences. (2021). National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences. https://www.naacls.org/
Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). (2021). Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/CLIA