By Mark Edmondson, LEAN Affiliates
The current issue (see page 2) of the Deming Institute’s newsletter includes an article by Deming, “Some notes on management in a hospital”. It’s a series of daily notes Deming made as a patient while hospitalized in the late 1980s.
In his analytical manner, Deming outlines several basic processes and poor ergonomics that result in a dangerous environment (like major errors and omissions with logging administration of meds).
The good news: He really liked the food.
He was a bit of a pioneer with thoughts about “Lean Healthcare”.
The question is: Are hospitals better today?
About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology, focused on improving quality and patient safety, improving access, reducing costs, and fully engaging healthcare professionals. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for KaiNexus.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
He liked the food, yes, but on the next page you see he complained about how the plates were probably bought at “the lowest cost.” Deming loved to gripe about people buying on price/cost alone and he saw many examples of it there at the hospital.
More troubling was the problem with his IV drip. The nurse was undoubtedly distracted and forgot to come back to put his line back in. That happens all the time — people (nurses, lab technicians, pharmacists) are constantly distracted that impacts quality. Things aren’t any better today, which is why hospitals are finally looking at lean and TPS.
Yes, Deming was very ahead of his time. Of course, he points the finger at leadership, not the individual nurses or assistants or supervisors he talked to.
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