A Lean transportation approach for improving emergency medical operations

Villarreal, Bernardo; Garza-Reyes, Jose Arturo; Granda-Guti�rrez, Edgar; Kumar, Vikas

Abstract

© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper extends the approach of Lean transportation to improve the performance of emergency medical processes (EMP) by adapting its main concepts into the main characteristics of the EMP environment. The paper is based on an inductive theory-building process initiated from a case study in the field of emergency medical services. The development of the suggested performance improvement approach triggered from an exhaustive analysis of a process involved and an exploratory review of the existing improvement approaches available. The process of concern can be described as a specialized transportation process, where human lives are at risk. Its characteristics led to a natural application of Lean transportation. The results include, a novel approach for improving the agility and efficient EMS processes. This is validated with an application for improving ambulance response times and turnaround times of the Red Cross operations located in Monterrey, Mexico. The approach proved to be an integrated scheme for identifying waste opportunities at a systems level. This characteristic is important to let operations management prioritize improvement efforts in a limited budget situation. This work suggests the application of the emerging Lean transportation approach for increasing the agility performance of EMS processes.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 21, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 14, 2018
• Publication Date: Aug 18, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jun 27, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 14, 2019
• Journal: Production Planning and Control
• Print ISSN: 0953-7287
• Electronic ISSN: 1366-5871
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 928-942
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1494343
• Keywords: emergency medical service, lean transportation, transportation waste
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/858139
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1494343
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Production Planning & Control on 14th August 2018, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1494343.
• Contract Date: Jun 27, 2018