The Spring CoP event focused on transformative world of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and its profound impact on healthcare processes. Ciara Wynne of RPA Centre of Excellence guided us through what RPA is and how this technology empowers healthcare organisations to revolutionise their operations by automating repetitive tasks, allowing staff to redirect their focus towards more meaningful and strategic activities. By integrating RPA with ‘Leaned-Up’ Processes, healthcare professionals can free up valuable time and create streamlined workflows that are efficient, human error free, and enable speedy increase in capacity to meet demand.

The Autumn CoP event focused on Making the Business Case for Lean, facilitating practical support and discussion on how to advocate for Lean projects/initiatives in your department, with specific focus on working with stakeholders and implementing change in a busy environment with competing priorities. Anne Keary of ICT & Digital Health spoke to her recent Lean Yellow Belt project, demonstrating the importance of engaging with stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. It was noted that bringing these topics to a wider audience will raise awareness around process improvement, encourage collaboration and ultimately create more value for our patients.

This event highlighted where Lean has been used across a variety of areas within the HSE. With speakers sharing their experience of using Lean Tools & Techniques, providing insight and inspiration on how Lean can be applied in a multitude of processes. Noeleen Burke, IEHG, took us through the process that has been in place across IEHG for several years now. With focused effort on the complex issues, the improvements and benefits have stood to the group leading out on the initiatives with continuous requests for support in Lean initiatives across the hospital group. Next Raymond Daly, eHealth & Disruptive Technologies, presented his Lean Yellow Belt project having completed the training programme in 2022. While the project was technical in nature, this was a great demonstration of using Lean tools and thinking to solve a sticky problem. The improvements benefitted both the customer and the supplier in the process.

With focus Climate Change and Sustainability becoming even more and more important for organisations, this event demonstrated how Lean was leveraged to solve some of these problems across a variety of business units. Our first guest speakers Niall Hoyne from St. Luke’s General Hospital presented his Lean Water Yellow Belt A3 Report and walked us through how the Lean methodology supported a reduction of water within the Reverse Osmosis process on site. Mary Clare Power from Central Accounts Payable in Cork demonstrated the output of her Yellow Belt project, completed in 2019. This project is a prime example of wasted resources and over-processing of activities.

With such interest in Process Mapping from the first event, this became the theme for the next event. Edel Norris, HSE and Dr. Sean Moore, University of Limerick told us about projects they were involved in that utilised Process Mapping as a tool to understand why there were so many pain points with a particular process and how they could improve it. This provided the basis for an active group discussion on Process Mapping and the Lean approach.

The First Lean Community of Practice brought together past trainees and Lean Champions to discuss Lean training needs for emerging Lean Practitioners. Guest Speaker, Liz Constantinescu from Virgin Media shared their approach to Lean projects and the key tools used for success. From the session a requirement emerged for more in-depth training on the Lean tool, Process Mapping. The insights from this session were taken into the design and development of the HSE Lean Process Mapping Training Programme.