I led the Bolton Improving Care System (BICS) at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust (formerly Royal Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) between 2008 and 2013. I think it was the best job I ever had, aiming to improve quality, safety, cost, experience and morale in healthcare on a huge scale. Maasaki Imai describes lean as ‘highest possible quality at lowest possible cost’, what an aspiration: brilliant for patients and families, brilliant for taxpayers. The system in Bolton was one of the first lean implementations in the UK in the NHS and healthcare and one of the few that tried and risked – with many issues, problems and learning – to implement lean across the whole organisation and to systematise it and build dynamic change capabilities and most importantly make things better for staff and patients.
I get contacted frequently asking for insights and comments as to ‘how to do lean healthcare’ and for information and documents regarding BICS, mostly on Twitter. To save me a lot of time and to reduce duplication, I have curated the publically available information that I know of regarding BICS from both the academic and grey literature on this post. Some of it is pretty old now and out of date, but I hope this provides an historical record and also gives and idea of how the thinking evolved over time.
During my PhD literature searching, I keep coming across more stuff, some that I didn’t know of at the time and so I will add more as I find it, if you find any broken links or information that is not on here please let me know, so I can add more. Hope this is useful to those of you that inquire! Please bear in mind I no longer work in Bolton. For information about what happened next for quality improvement in Bolton please contact the Trust directly.
Academic Literature (Journal Access is required)
Bene, J. (2010) Lean: Where to start. International Journal of Care Pathways, 14(1), p36.
Burgess, N. & Radnor, Z. (2012) Service improvement in the English National Health Service: Complexities and tensions. Journal of Management & Organization, 18(5), 594-607.
Burgess, N. & Radnor,Z. (2013) “Evaluating Lean in healthcare”, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 26 Iss: 3, pp.220 – 235
Burgess, N. Worthington, C,. Davis, N.D., Radnor, Z.J., Robinson, S., & Cooke, M. (2011). SimLean healthcare: handbook. SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, 2524
Martin, A. J., Hogg, P. & Mackay, S. (2013) A mixed model study evaluating lean in the transformation of an Orthopaedic Radiology service. Radiography, 19(1), 2-6. [A Martin, Thesis on this topic also available]
Fillingham, D. (2007) “Can lean save lives?”, Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 20 Iss: 4, pp.231 – 241
Robinson, S., Radnor, Z.J., Burgess, N., & Worthington, C. (2012). SimLean: Utilising simulation in the implementation of lean in healthcare. European Journal of Operational Research, 219(1), 188-197
Singh, S., Lipscomb, G., Padmakumar, K., Ramamoorthy, R., Ryan, S., Bates, V., Crompton, S., Dermody, E. & Moriarty, K. (2012) Republished: Daily consultant gastroenterologist ward rounds: reduced length of stay and improved inpatient mortality. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 88(1044), 583-587.
Tyldsley, S. and Wyton, P. (2011). Lean: Changing the organizational discourse for facilities management? In: 10th EuroFM Research Symposium: Cracking the productivity nut, Vienna, 24-25 May 2011.
Books
Fillingham, D. (2007) Lean Healthcare. UK: Kingsham Press.
Hafer, M.S. (2012) Simpler Healthcare. USA: Amazon
Burgess, N., Radnor, Z.J, and Furnival, J. (2016). A case study of a whole organisation approach to lean implementation across an English hospital. Public Service Operations Management – A research handbook. Z. Radnor, N. Bateman, A. Esain et al. Abingdon, UK, Routledge: 310-327.
Grey Literature
Bradley, B,. Bowden, M., Furnival, J., Walton, C. (2011). “Service redesign: A change is in the air“, Health Service Journal, 13th October, pp29-31.
BICS Academy – Lean Management Journal (2010)
Furnival, J.; Bernstein, C. and Doherty, L. (2011). Lean Leadership. Health Manager. Health Management Institute of Ireland. 18th January.
Winn, D (2009) Human Givens.
Process Excellence Award 2012 – Best Mature Process Improvement Programme Case Study
Mackillican, R. (2009) Bolton’s road to lean. National Health Executive. Sept/Oct 2009, pg.65.
Institute for Innovation and Improvement (2009). Lean Thinking. Cross-Current, Winter 2009.
Patterson, P. & Leach, J. (2009). A leaner care system. Health Informatics NOw, June 2009, pg 20-21.
Conference Material
Global Lean Healthcare Conference 2007
Genova Lean Healthcare conference (I think 2009)
Global Lean healthcare – Redesign Summit Australia 2012 (to add)
Web Material
BICS Case Study 3: PEX Award incl CAMHS info.
BICS Presentation 2010 incl. stroke, methods, academy and urgent care work
Schenk, A.; Interview re BICS with McKinsey (note need to log in to the Operations Extranet and then search for Bolton)
Dave Hamer Presentation for Nuffield Trust re: BICS
Lean Blood Sciences Presentation
Lean Blood Sciences Video Interview
Lean Blood Sciences – Case Study
Multiple Case Studies – No Delays
Multiple Case Studies – NHS Confederation
EWin Case Study – Staff Engagement
A Guide to Finance for Hospital Doctors, Audit Commission
Radiology & Orthopaedics 18 weeks
Respiratory Specialist Nurses (PEX winners)
Mortality (see case study data in presentation)
Patient Experience Based Design in Elective Orthopaedics
Kings Fund Experience Based Design Toolkit
Feeling Better – Patient Experience Based Design from NHS Confed
Patient Gateways – Reducing Mortality and NEL LoS
Communication & Strategic Reviews
Junior Doctor BICS Leadership Fellows – BICS Academy work
Lean IT – interview
Safer Clinical Systems incl. human factors (with Bolton PCT and the Health Foundation)
‘3P’ work to redesign Maternity Services, for new capital programme – Making it Better
Posters
British Geriatrics Society – Falls Reduction
The Exemplar Programme (sort of productive ward with accreditation – BICS as daily work, results shown include harms such as Falls and Pressure Ulcers)
Many posters have been presented at IHI International Forums and at other conferences and will be on their poster repositories on for example, Trauma, Stroke, Respiratory, BICS itself etc. between the period 2005-2013. Oral Presentations were also given on Trauma and BICS in 2010; and on Safer Clinical Systems in 2011.
Orthopaedic Trauma redesign and mortality reduction work won best poster at the IHI Forum in Berlin in 2009.
Press
Awards Information
A3 Thinking – Adopt, Adapt, Improve – Health and Social Care Award 2008
Dr Bradley, Respiratory, BMJ Clinical Leader of the Year 2011, Runner up
Dr Dufton, CAMHS, BMJ, Clinical Leader of the Year 2011, Winner
HSJ Patient Safety Award 2010 (highly commended) 2011 (winner) – Theatres WHO Checklist
HSJ Efficiency Awards 2011, 2012 – Health Records, District Nursing, Laboratory Medicine
David Fillingham: NHS Leadership Awards Quality Champion of the Year 2010
Michaela Bowden (Runner up) Nursing Leader for Respiratory Improvement work using BICS
Suzanne Lomax (Winner) Nursing Leader for Stroke Improvement work using BICS
Mortality Improvement – BMJ Awards – 2012 Shortlisted –
40% reduction in HSMR from 2005 to Sept 2009 (using 2008-2009 baseline) 0.5% reduction in readmissions over same period (Source Trust website)
Patient Experience Based Design – Elective orthopaedics – Bolton Diamond Care Award Winner 2009;. Shortlisted HSJ Awards 2009
BICS Academy – Bolton Diamond Care Award Winner 2009
European Process Excellence Network – 2011; 2012 Winner; Best Improvement Project (Respiratory); Best Mature Improvement Programme (BICS)
Healthcare Quality Improvement 