KNOXVILLE — The Lean for Healthcare course offered through the College of Business Administration’s Center for Executive Education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has received approval from the UT College of Medicine to provide physicians and other health care professionals with continuing medical education (CME) credits.
The course, offered Nov. 7-12, will provide physicians up to 35.25 AMA PRA Category 1 credits. Physician assistants and other health care professionals can receive credits through reciprocity agreements between medical associations. Continuing educational units (CEUs) will allow nurses, emergency medical technicians and others to apply for contact hours for licensing requirements. The UT College of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The Lean for Healthcare program uses interactive lectures, hands-on case analyses, experiential learning and computer simulations to teach participants how to apply lean to the health care environment. Participants learn to identify and eliminate organizational waste, understand operational dysfunctions, identify high-leverage areas for improvement, implement and sustain a lean transformation, and accelerate a lean transformation based on an organization’s needs, skills, culture and commitment.
“The Lean for Healthcare course trains health care professionals, and participating companies are experiencing a remarkable return on their financial and human resource investment,” said Chuck Parke, executive director of UT’s Center for Executive Education. “Continuing professional education credits further solidify our role in delivering nonclinical education for health care providers and allow participants to use the course toward professional re-licensure.”
“In Lean for Healthcare, the patient is the center of everything,” said Jody Crane, a lead faculty member for the Lean for Healthcare program. Crane is an emergency physician at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, Va., and business director of Fredericksburg Emergency Medical Alliance.
By applying lean principles, Crane and his team reduced the length of stay in the Mary Washington Hospital emergency department by more than 38 percent — from more than four hours in 2004 to two hours, and 30 minutes in 2009. They also decreased the rate with which patients leave without being seen by almost 90 percent — from a high of 13 percent in 2003 to 1.5 percent in 2009. In essence, the team created the capacity to treat 38 percent more patients with similar resources.
The Lean for Healthcare course was designed for hospital executives, nursing executives, physician leaders, directors of ancillary operations, engineers and medical suppliers.
Lean for Healthcare is one offering in the Healthcare Business Solutions family of programs offered by the Center for Executive Education. For more information, visit http://HealthcareSolutions.utk.edu.
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C O N T A C T:
Lea Anne Law (865-974-1622, llaw@utk.edu)