An Assessment of the Practicability of Lean Accounting in Healthcare Sector: Evidence from Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

The search for new accounting paradigms has led to important discoveries in applied research and several accounting methods .This study is a review of the practicability of lean accounting in the Nigerian health care sectorand the challenges to the adoption of lean implementation assessment as management control technique. The problem of this research is centered on the scarcity of extant literature on the subject area in the face of recent and constantly growing need for lean accounting and lean management. Again, the ambiguous notion of lean being strictly meant for the manufacturing (automobile industry) pose a serious threat. Primary data were generated with structured questionnaires administered to the top managers and accounting staff in the selected healthcare systems within Anambra state, Nigeria. Karl Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the Null hypotheses at 5% level of significance.Findings show among others; that lean accounting practices yield profit maximization and that lean accounting can be effectively applied in the healthcare services of Anambrastate. The study recommends that Healthcare organizations implement lean accounting and accounting staff, directors and top managers be trained to get acquainted with lean accounting and implementation techniques so as to get them well informed on Lean accounting issues and practices.