Health lean management and Clinical risk management: first evidences from two cases

The connection between Health Lean Management and Clinical Risk Management is not studied in the literature yet, as this research stream is still at its early stage and require extensive investigations. Giving a contribution in filling in this gap, the purpose of this research is to investigate the significant features that characterize “lean and safety” projects. Two projects have been selected from the same hospital in two different fields of application, in order to grasp useful findings from these innovative cases. Organizational aspects (actors, roles, operational mechanisms, procedures), phases followed, tools and practices adopted and the key factors for a successful “lean & safety” project implementation are suggested in this paper. Comparing the two cases, evidences about the linkages between HLM and CRM have emerged. The results suggest that HLM be a support for CRM and an integrated methodology should be considered. First indications about how developing this new synergic methodology are provided, and they should stimulate future research, testing and exploiting them, also in other contexts, in order to contribute to the development of safer and sustainable health care system.