Optimizing value utilizing Toyota Kata methodology in a multidisciplinary clinic

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Pediatric Medicine
• Health Economics

Background:

• Healthcare value is defined by patient outcomes relative to cost.
• Optimizing value requires patient-level measurement of outcomes and costs.
• Multidisciplinary clinics improve outcomes but often incur higher costs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reduce patient costs and enhance value in a pediatric multidisciplinary reconstructive pelvic medicine (RPM) clinic.
• To implement and evaluate lean management principles for operational efficiency.
• To measure the impact of changes on cost, patient flow, and family experience.

Main Methods:

• Utilized time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) to determine individual patient costs.
• Applied Toyota Kata methodology to improve operational efficiency.
• Measured provider time, patient costs, value-added time (VAT), and family experience scores (FES).

Main Results:

• Clinic preparation costs were reduced by 69%, from $619 to $194 per patient.
• Achieved a significant cost reduction of 41% ($366/patient) initially, followed by a further reduction.
• Increased the number of appointments per clinic and sustained improvements in family experience scores.

Conclusions:

• Time-based cost analysis is effective for measuring individualized patient costs.
• Lean management methodology successfully optimized value in a multidisciplinary pediatric clinic.
• Significant cost reductions were achieved without compromising patient care quality or family satisfaction.