Qualitative leanness assessment of hospital using benchmarking: a case study

In this research, we demonstrate how a qualitative assessment based on benchmarking approach can be carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of lean implementation in a hospital. A single case study approach is used for primary data collection from an Indian hospital. Secondary data are gathered on two best-in-class benchmarking partners, identified for their reputation in lean implementation. Lean practices and performance measures adopted in the case hospital are compared with the benchmarking partners using Xerox’s benchmarking model. Our results show that most of the lean practices implemented in the case hospital are low-hanging, and the scope exists for improving its lean maturity by learning from the benchmarking partners. The performance measures are highly contextualised to individual hospitals, although the waste to be reduced is standard across the healthcare sector. The demonstrated assessment approach can guide practitioners in understanding how well their hospital has implemented lean compared to benchmarking partners and where they have scope for attaining further lean maturity.