Adaptability of lean management systems in hospitals and a case study

Recently, competition's meaning always get through to the continuous improving and difference of philosophy of lean thinking comeout at this point. Lean production system whose benefits are seen clearly is used by manufacturing sector in many years, because of impact of computer tecnology and information age, service sector which is growing more can use lean production system.Because businesses to be successful in the long term, they are able to recognize and satisfy its customers and their changing needs. Especially, healthcare which is rapidly developing is a service system and continuous improvement, high quality, low cost and customer satisfaction, employees, compliance managers and suppliers began to be its aims. People who are sick wait for services from hospitals so should increase efficiency and eliminate the waste of resources in the system. At this point, arises the need for the philosophy of Lean Thinking.In this study, the applicability of Lean Thinking and the availability of Lean production?s benefits in service sector were researched. For this purpose, wastes defined at imaging center in Sakarya Training and Research Hospital by using Lean tools and techniques and a new appointment system was designed to eliminate wastes. Finally, the applicability of new system was evaluated.