LeanTaaS Leads AI-Driven Hospital Operations Transformation

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LeanTaaS leverages predictive analytics and machine learning to trans-form hospital capacity management through its industry-leading soft-ware solution, iQueue. The iQueue suite of solutions improves patient care access by decreasing wait times and delivery costs and improves operational performance by optimizing costly, constrained resources like operating rooms, inpatient beds, and infusion chairs.

LeanTaaS was founded in 2010 by Mohan Giridharadas who had previously led the Lean Manufacturing and Lean Service Operations Practice at McKinsey. Initially, LeanTaaS was industry-agnostic, working with roughly 20 companies, including Google, Home Depot, and Flextronics to improve operational performance through custom-built SaaS applications. In late 2013, LeanTaaS partnered with Stanford Health Care to solve a critical operating challenge. The waiting room in the hospital’s infusion treatment area was regularly overcrowded by midday, but nearly empty during the early morning and late afternoon. Stanford Health Care needed help redesigning its operating model to be more efficient while still providing industry-leading care and service.

Giridharadas knew from previous experience that matching supply and demand in an analytically rigorous manner is key to optimizing operational performance. Over nine months, the LeanTaaS team developed an optimized template for each day of the week that provided guidelines on the number of slots that could be offered for each type of appointment at every 10-minute daily interval. In 2014, it became clear that LeanTaaS’s approach, which combined sophisticated data-science algorithms with proven lean principles, was working. The company refined its algorithms and created its first product, iQueue for Infusion Centers, in 2015.

LeanTaaS expanded to additional infusion centers and also identified other key areas of the hospital that had capacity management challenges. Historically, healthcare organizations have relied on manual and outdated processes to schedule surgeries or manage patient flow. This leads to stress for staff and providers, increased wait times and delays for patients, and poor experiences for all. Meanwhile, expensive assets sit idle during prime hours, and care delivery, as well as the related revenue, is reduced.

LeanTaaS created new products to optimize operating rooms and inpatient beds. Its iQueue solutions predict future demand and strategically deploy assets based on historical data, recent pattern shifts, and real-time insights. LeanTaaS believed that helping hospitals in this way would sustain an enormous improvement in care capacity, patient access, and financial outcomes, unlocking tens of billions of dollars in value each year in the U.S. Since 2015, LeanTaaS has been pursuing this vision with its cutting-edge technology and a single-minded focus on healthcare. Today, LeanTaaS’s iQueue software is used by over 120 health systems and 485+ hospitals across the nation.

LeanTaaS currently offers three solutions:

iQueue for Operating Rooms: OR time is extremely valuable. Commonly used block scheduling of valuable OR time is time-consuming and a source of surgeon frustration. iQueue creates a credible, fair, and transparent system for time management and the optimal utilization of staff, equipment, and capital.
iQueue for Inpatient Beds: Uses real-time ML/AI-based admit and discharge prediction models for proactive decision making, fewer capacity crises, and a shared understanding of the current state of bed and unit capacity, including upcoming needs, to ultimately drive increased access to care and improved patient flow.
iQueue for Infusion Centers: Helps infusion centers stay operationally agile by optimizing scheduling templates, level-loading daily patient flow across nursing staff, flagging future problem days for preventive action, and identifying appointment rescheduling options that improve patient and staff experience.

As the US population ages and expands, the need for healthcare is also growing. Hospitals used to rely on building or buying new capacity, but it’s more cost effective to maximize the capacity that already exists. The ongoing nursing shortage also requires hospitals to find realistic tools that reduce burnout and make the most out of available staff. iQueue has been an invaluable tool during the COVID-19 crisis, helping hospitals manage beds, surgical backlogs, and staffing optimization.

LeanTaaS’s customers include 40% of the top 25 health systems in the country, based on net patient revenue. Customers achieve significant demonstrable ROI and on average recoup investment in 3-6 months post-implementation.

iQueue for Operating Rooms has helped hospitals achieve the following results:

1,800+ hours of OR time unlocked resulting in an average of $0.5 million additional revenue delivered per OR per year
57% decrease in abandoned blocks
25-day average lead time for released time
44% decrease in minutes from entirely unused allocated blocks
55% of surgeons engaged in their performance data
Over $40 million in revenue generated within 19 months across 32 hospitals by filling unused released block time (Dignity Health)

Use of iQueue for Infusion Centers delivers on average: