S A Partners recently hosted a 2 day Lean Best Practice Workshop at the London (North West) Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN), supported by Regimantas Pestininkas, CLRN Lead RM&G Manager.
The workshop focused on the potential benefits Lean Thinking could offer the CLRN environment, how it might be applied and some basic problem-solving skills for getting started. We identified improvement opportunities for moving towards standardising the approaches that would explore clinical research set up (to ensure it is completed within 30 days without compromising good research governance) and examine study performance management (to ensure clinical studies are delivered within agreed timescale). The organisation has a number of performance targets it is currently striving towards. These include: doubling patient participation in trials; increasing the number of commercial studies; increasing the proportion of studies completed on time; increasing the efficiency of study set up; and, improving financial management to within 1% of budget. There was some discussion around how lean might contribute to the achievement of these targets.
There were 17 candidates from 10 different NHS Trusts that attended the event. At the close of the event their new-found knowledge was assessed against the Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC) Lean Competency System and all 17 passed with flying colours!
Dave Lee & Leighton Williams facilitating the workshop.
Regimantas Pestininkas, CLRN Lead RM&G Manager commented on the training:
“S A Partners provided LEAN training that far exceeded our expectations. The opportunity to engage with the S A consultants prior to the LEAN session was invaluable as it meant that the training delivered on the day was relevant to the needs of both our organisation and the individuals who attended the event. The trainers were very knowledgeable and were able to share their own experience with the group. The learning programme combined theoretical framework with practical work which got us all thinking about some tangible ways in which we could improve and sustain the high quality services that we provide.”
Leo Wan, of the West London Primary Care Consortium, added :
‘The [S A Partners input] was certainly one of the most substantially useful training sessions I have attended and I imagine it will have the most long-lasting effects. I was a complete newcomer to Lean concepts prior to Wednesday. I found the course both engaging and informative. I will definitely be using the ideas, techniques and methods of thinking within my department to make its systems more efficient and efficacious.’
