Achieving real transformation in healthcare organisations requires more than a single skill set and, as many healthcare organisations have found, improvement programmes based on Lean are simply not enough according to Amnis, the quality, innovation and productivity organisation.

“Trying to achieve long-term change through a fragmented series of improvement programmes, or by focusing on one approach by itself - such as simply applying Lean or Six Sigma - is unlikely to lead to the level of change that healthcare organisations require in this challenging environment,” said Amnis’ Mark Eaton.

“The only real way to achieve and maintain sustainable improvements is via an integrated approach to improvement,” he added. “This approach needs to combine a focus on people development and cultural change with productivity and process improvement.

“Obviously, this needs to be combined with a management attitude that is both resilient and has the courage to tackle difficult issues,” he explained.

Carla Bickley, of Wolverhampton City PCT, commented: “We don’t believe we would have been able to move as far, or as fast, as we have done without the integrated support we’ve received from Amnis.

“The Amnis approach has helped us to create not only a successful service improvement strategy but also a thriving project management culture. This has drawn on a wide range of skills and has helped us to produce improvements in the way we deliver services,” she added.

Amnis’ team of multi-skilled consultants has worked with Wolverhampton PCT over 18 months, helping to put a range of strategies and tactics in place which has already seen significant process and performance improvements.

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About ‘Lean’

Coined by Jim Womack’s research team at MIT in the 1990s, ‘Lean’ means doing more with less. The core idea behind ‘Lean’ is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. A Lean organisation understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continually meet those needs.

About Amnis Limited

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in innovation, transformation and organisational improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.

Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.