Countries around the world are facing the unprecedented challenge of having to vaccinate their adult population in as quick a time as possible, to protect them from Covid-19 and reopen economies.
Here in Italy, we need to vaccinate around 50 million people (nearly 100 million injections). This titanic effort needs to guarantee complete safety and an excellent “customer experience” to every single person, while limiting the time necessary to administer the jabs and using as few resources as possible to avoid any further impact on the healthcare system’s regular activities.
In other words, we need a brilliant process in place, one that is effective, efficient, and flexible. There is a lot that Lean Thinking can do to contribute to a speedy and safe vaccination campaign, supporting healthcare staff in their daily work. So, when the President of Veneto, Luca Zaia, expressed the need to provide organizational support to the region’s healthcare system, we at Istituto Lean Management made ourselves available.
Our initial observation and supporting activities at two large-scale vaccination hubs – the Palaexpò in Venice and the exhibition center in Vicenza – revealed several potential improvements that, once completed, could make an already strong process safer and significantly more efficient.
In true lean style, we began with the observation of the user experience from the moment they arrive to the vaccination hub to the moment they leave with the vaccine in their arm.