The Perception of Lean Healthcare by Nursing Professionals

This research aims to identify which lean healthcare (LH) factors from the nursing professionals’ perception matter for the introduction of a lean mentality in hospital environments. We revised the main concepts, techniques and tools that comprise the lean philosophy that is applied in hospitals. Based on the theoretical revision, we surveyed through a questionnaire sent out to 252 people with a return rate of 39.3 per cent and used the structural equation modelling through the SmartPLS 3.0 software. Identified three constructs that represented a load of 0.4961 for the concepts/philosophy construct, 0.248 for the tools construct and 0.161 for the techniques and tools construct, which are considered satisfactory loads by the literature. All the constructs proposed in the research directly affected 69 per cent of the LH construct. Based on the nursing professionals’ perception, it is necessary to use the techniques, the tools, the concepts and the lean philosophy to create an LH mentality. The results show the operations’ planning relevance in health services and, consequently, the importance of LH for the demands that mostly come from the impairment of technological and social resources in the Brazilian hospital context.