Achieving 18 Week Success

A wide range of NHS Trusts are using Lean as part of their strategy for achieving the government's target to achieve an 18 Week referral pathway (the period from initial referral until effective treatment begins).

For many, this means that first appointments need to be achieved in around 4-6 weeks to allow for diagnostics to occur prior to treatment starting.

In many areas, trusts are already achieving these targets, but very few trusts will have all pathways that are '18 Week Capable' and will require to focus some effort on to the improvement process and Lean can be both a blesssing and a curse in this process.

The reason for the last statement is that whilst Lean can be used to successfully achieve the 18 Week target it can also be implemented in a manner which increases organisational issues including leading to the transfer of risk to other areas, a negative impact on Patient Safety and generally creating unsustainable improvements which will slip back as soon as management focus turns to something else.

The upside is that Lean can be used to provide a structured process for achieving the 18 Week pathway, with all the associated benefits in terms of patient experience. The problems that normally occur include:

1. Failing to look at the pathway from end to end (which can be avoided by using Value Stream Analysis)

2. Failing to involve representatives from all functions affected - and this often means representatives from outside the organisation

3. Not scoping the improvement process (download a free guide to Scoping Session here)

4. Failing to provide a suitable structure for the improvement process that means often that discussions do not turn into actions

To find out more about how to use Lean to achieve the 18 Week target and receive our free eBook 'Lean for Practitioners' visit our website and sign up to our network.