INVESTIGATING THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN HEALTH LEAN MANAGEMENT AND CLINICAL RISK MANAGEMENT: INSIGHTS FROM A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Purpose: The purpose is to investigate connections and overlaps between Health Lean Management (HLM) and Clinical Risk Management (CRM) understanding whether and how these two approaches can be combined together to pursue efficiency and patient safety improvements simultaneously. Method: A systematic literature review has been carried out. Searching in academic databases, papers that focus not only on health lean management, but also on clinical errors and risk reduction, were included. The general characteristics of the selected papers were analysed and a content analysis was conducted. Findings: In most of the papers, pursing objectives of HLM and CRM and adopting tools and practices of both approaches, results of quality and, particularly, of safety improvements were obtained. A two-way arrow between HLM and CRM emerged but so far, none of the studies has been focused on the relationship between HLM and CRM. Practical Implications: The possibility to integrate HLM and CRM, introduced and demonstrated in the paper, should foster physicians and hospital managers to develop a synergic methodology as a solution to enhance different dimensions of quality in health.