The value added and non-value-added activities in hospitals – With reference to outpatient department.

Lean methodologies have become beneficial in hospitals as it improves the process flow without mistakes, enlargement and other wastes. Increased efficiency, reduction in non-value added and upgrade of the value-added activities, enhanced production flow, effectiveness in cost and time are the key elements in eliminating waste. Objective: To identify the value and non-value-added activities by analyzing and working out the current state, differentiating the use versus need, envisions an improved future state. The patient's total mean time spent in his/her treatment with two major corporate hospitals (Ramesh hospital & Medi cover hospital) located in the Tier 2 cities Guntur and Visakhapatnam. The data collected for a period of seven days analyzing twenty patients each day, focused on General Physician department during the Out-Patient hours. Also, a keyword analysis using VoS Viewer on Value and Non-Value added is extracted. It is identified that the efficiency in hospital needs to be assessed with the incorporation of the lean tools like standard charts, value stream mapping, determining takt time etc. The hospital management across to improve the performance, patient satisfaction and quality treatment need to incorporate lean methodology in hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]