By Jill Slater

No one can tell if Lean is working: Sask. auditor

Dec 4, 2014 | 11:53 AM

The provincial government has spent many hours defending Lean, but the provincial auditor says the government itself doesn’t know if the initiative is working.

Auditor Judy Ferguson says the Health Quality Council (HQC) is supposed to measure the success of Lean. She found that “the council’s database did not include one half of the expected updates. As a result the database was not complete.”

“Lean” is a management philosophy that looks to eliminate inefficiencies to save money and time.

“The council can not know whether the use of Lean has resulted in sustainable improvements to the delivery of healthcare and whether a culture of continuous improvement has been created,” said Ferguson. “Our office thinks it should.”

She says the HQC needs to better monitor results health regions report from Lean.

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“At the time of our audit, HQC did not know whether the use of Lean had created sustainable change or was making health care better,” stated Ferguson’s annual report released Wednesday.

The auditor has issued five recommendations to the HQC which include collecting information from health agencies on Lean results, submit written reports to the minister, and report the results to the public.

“I think as the public we should know. We have a right to know that,” said Ferguson.

The HQC responded to Ferguson’s recommendations, saying the council accepted the recommendations and had already started implementing changes.

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