Lean healthcare: Implementation of a Lean system in a community pharmacy: Case study

Lean is a process improvement-oriented methodology that focuses on efficiency and waste elimination, leading to increased value delivered to the customer and return for the organization. Considering the current conjuncture, it becomes even more relevant to implement a management methodology that increases efficiency, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises. Currently, there is a gap in the literature, with most of the cases studied in the healthcare sector referring to hospitals. This case study was carried out in a community pharmacy that already has a pilot project underway to implement the Lean methodology, allowing the identification of the difficulties experienced by the team in this process. This analysis leads to the suggestion of an implementation project, which will allow the pharmacy to improve its performance, through the suggestion of appropriate tools to use according to the identified needs. Data collection and analysis were carried out through a focus group, direct observation, document analysis, and descriptive statistics. This implementation project allows, on the one hand, to contribute to the database of case studies in this sector and, on the other hand, to generate operational results in the pharmacy in question, reducing its waste and increasing value for the customer and the organization.Lean é uma metodologia orientada para a melhoria de processos, que se foca na eficiência e na eliminação de desperdício, levando a um aumento do valor entregue ao cliente e retorno para a organização. Considerando a conjuntura atual, torna-se ainda mais relevante a implementação de uma metodologia de gestão que aumente a sua eficiência, especialmente em pequenas e médias empresas. Atualmente, existe uma lacuna na literatura, sendo que a maioria dos casos estudados na área da saúde são referentes a hospitais. Este estudo de caso foi realizado numa farmácia comunitária que já tem em curso um projeto piloto o para implementar a metodologia Lean, permitindo identificar as dificuldades sentidas pela equipa nesse processo. Esta análise leva à sugestão de um projecto de implementação, que permita à farmácia melhorar o seu desempenho, através da sugestão de ferramentas adequadas para usar de acordo com as necessidades identificadas. A recolha e análise de dados foram feitas com recurso a um focus group, observação directa, análise de documentos e estatística descritiva. Este projeto de implementação permite, por um lado, contribuir para a biblioteca de estudos de caso neste sector e, por outro, gerar resultados operacionais na farmácia em questão, reduzindo os seus desperdícios e aumentando o valor para o cliente e para a organização

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved