Dialogues Between the National Humanization Policy and Lean Methodology

Abstract

This chapter is the result of a project signed between the Universidade Federal Fluminense and the Ministry of Health in 2019 and executed in 2020. Its objective was to identify intersections of ideas between the national humanization policy (PNH) and the Lean methodology. The path used was to seek ideas in the Lean methodology similar to the ideas present in the principles of the PNH. These intersections are understood as opportunities for actions that consider both the reduction of waste and the strengthening of aspects of the humanization of health. The authors identified seven common ideas: focus on the customer, the importance of the collective as a space for transforming work, the importance given to the workplace, shared management of processes, user inclusion, transversality of both, acting in the way of thinking about work. The conclusion is that such coincidences exist and are opportunities to deepen the dissemination of the principles and guidelines of the PNH through the actions of the Lean methodology and vice versa.