Dr. Latif Al-Hakim will deliver a seminar titled “System Approach for Reducing Variation and Errors within Healthcare Services by using ‘Lean Thinking’ Concept”, on Friday 6 November 2009 at 10.30-12.00 hrs., at room 106, Chalerm Prakiat Building, ISE.
Abstract:
The landmark report of the American Institute of Medicine (IOM) released on 2000 titled “To err is Human: Building a Safer Health System” reveals a high level of waste and error rates in hospitals. In response to this challenge, the report emphasizes the use of system / engineering approach. One recognized system approach applications is the Toyota production ‘lean thinking’ system. Lean thinking aims at drastically reducing process variations by lessening reducing waste and smooth flows. However, lean advocates in healthcare are experiencing frustrating difficulties in implementing lean initiatives. Another approach is information quality. This seminar introduce the concepts of lean thinking and information quality and shows that integrating lean thinking with information quality concepts provides a practical solution to reduce variation and waste within healthcare services. It illustrates case studies from Australian hospitals conducted in the most critical areas of hospitals: operating theatres and emergency room. Results show that waste, disruption and errs can be reduced by at least 25%.
About the speaker:
Latif Al-Hakim is the program leader of the supply chain management discipline in the Faculty of Business at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. His experience spans industry, research and development and academic institutions. He received his first degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1968. His MSc (1977) in Industrial Engineering and PhD (1983) in Management Science was awarded by the University of Wales (UK). He has published extensively in industrial engineering, information management and systems modeling. He is the author and editor of eight books, twelve chapters in books and more than 65 papers in various journals and conference proceedings. He serves in editorial board of several research journals and is a consultant to a number of major organizations in Australia. Dr Hakim is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Information Quality and Associate Editor of the International journal of Networking and Virtual Organizations. In addition, Latif has conducted technology transfer training courses and seminars in various fields of system and information management.