Improving plastic surgery care of hand trauma using the lean thinking model.

Plastic surgery trauma care services vary widely between hospitals in the UK. The authors evaluated their plastic surgery trauma service and illustrated the use of lean thinking to successfully implement small interventions to create positive change. The study findings demonstrated an increase in the proportion of patients with trauma being treated in the outpatient clinic rather than in the main theatres. This coincided with an increase in the proportion of patients being treated on the day of presentation to hospital.