The survey of lean implementation maturity level of hospitals in Thailand: does the hospital type matter?

Purpose:
The purpose of this study is to survey the lean implementation maturity level of the hospitals in Thailand and explore the differences across hospital types on lean implementation maturity level.

Method:
The survey questionnaire was developed from existing literature based on lean practices, lean performances and lean organizational culture, validated by three experts. Data were collected from staff with an experience in hospital lean quality improvement from 160 hospitals in Thailand. Descriptive statistics and T-tests were used to analyze the differences across hospital types on lean implementation maturity level.

Results:
Most hospitals in Thailand implemented lean at a medium maturity level (33.75%). The regional, non-Health Ministry and private hospitals had higher levels of lean implementation maturity than the general and community hospitals. The regional hospitals had the highest mean scores in all domains but significantly differed in the total mean score and lean activity domain compared with the community hospitals.

Conclusion:
The regional hospitals, tertiary care units with more speciality, resources and capacity, implemented lean at a higher maturity than other hospital types. Significantly the difference to community hospitals with limited resources, staff and capacity. Further study on the difference across hospital size and hospital capacity on lean implementation should be investigated.