An Integrated staffing methodology for food and nutrition services in hospitals

Healthcare leaders are held accountable for “managing operations effectively.” This means managing the use of all resources (people, equipment, raw materials, etc.) through respective processes in order to yield the desired outcomes with minimal waste of resources. Waste as defined by Lean Manufacturing includes over production, inventory (i.e. too much inventory), waiting (i.e. idle times), unnecessary transport, unnecessary processing (i.e. over processing), unnecessary human motions, and defects. The eighth waste of unused creativity was later added. 1 This is further complicated in multiservices departments, where there are various services produced simultaneously. Establishing core staffing levels with evidence-based benchmarks is fundamental in driving an effective (and efficient) operations.