Application of the lean manufacturing model as an effective way to improve the activities of a dental clinic.

Abstract

There is an increase in the need of the population, regardless of age, for dental care. At the same time, today there is a personnel shortage, insufficient staffing of the material and technical base of medical organizations providing dental care in outpatient settings. In this regard, it is necessary to search for new organizational technologies in the activities of these organizations to improve the availability and quality of medical care and meet the growing needs of patients. The purpose of the study: to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed model for the use of lean manufacturing technologies in dental practice. Materials and methods. In basic dental polyclinics, data on the timing of time spent by patients at the registry, while waiting for an appointment with a dentist–therapist, the time spent by a dentist–therapist in the treatment of medium caries of permanent teeth, taking into account the filling out of medical documentation before and after the use of lean manufacturing technologies, were analyzed. The assessment of the existing navigation in polyclinics, routing schemes for patients, methods of making an appointment was carried out by visualization method. In addition, the data of the survey of patients and employees of the dental clinic in the previously conducted study were analyzed. Results. After the application of lean manufacturing technologies, the time spent by the patient in the registry was reduced by 12–16 minutes. The total number of actions of the registrar decreased by 31.0%, and the distance traveled by 38.0–40.0%. The time of adding value at the reception of patients by a doctor increased by 20.0% (SP No. 1) and 24.3% (SP No. 2). The time of appointment of a dentisttherapist decreased by 33.8% in joint venture No. 1 and by 32.3% in joint venture No. 2. 72.7% of medical workers noted a positive effect in the activities of their polyclinics. The proportion of patients satisfied with the organization of medical care in dental clinics increased by 33.0%. On average, 88.5% of them noted positive changes in the registry, 73.0% – in the appointment of a dentist-therapist, 74.5% – in the new navigation, 75.0% – in the appointment. Findings. The use of lean manufacturing methods helped to reduce the time spent by patients at the reception desk, at the dentisttherapist’s appointment, increased the availability of an appointment, increased the satisfaction of both medical workers and patients. Thus, the use of the lean manufacturing technology implementation model has shown its effectiveness.