Clinical 5S for Healthcare Book Review

Akio Takahara is the leading lean practitioner and expert on the 5S support system in Healthcare. His book explores how to apply 5S for Healthcare.

In his book, he claims that 5S in Healthcare will do the following:

• Reduce human errors
• Prevent patient accidents
• Eliminate the waste of searching
• Better utilize available work space
• Increase patient and colleague satisfaction

It’s very refreshing to see a book like this focused on Healthcare – there is tremendous opportunity for improvement in patient experience as well as in reducing medical errors.

It’s a really good book, even if you’re not a lean practitioner in Healthcare. The examples are in Healthcare, but the principles of Lean and 5S can be applied to any environment.

I really enjoyed the section on Visual Management. Takahara explains the four aspects of Visual Management:

• Visualization allows you to see the condition of work
• Clarification helps us draw appropriate judgments
• Marking allows us to identify items
• Sharing Rules creates a sharing environment

I recommend this book for any Lean practitioner in Healthcare or any Lean practitioner in any field. A great read and I learned a lot from it.