“The Waiting Room” Documentary – a Virtual Gemba Visit (of Sorts) on PBS

PBS has aired a documentary about an Emergency Department in East Oakland, CA.  You can visit the website for the film  and you can also view it via YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flwMHcZeTpo

It's a very spartan documentary… sometimes dull and routine, sometimes compelling. You see and hear the doctors, nurses, and patients without the intrusion of a narrator or heavy handed voiceover. You see the waiting, the anxiety, the frustration, and the absurdity of a system where a patient will wait seven hours in the waiting room just to get a Tylenol – “I told him to go to Walgreens,” said the nurse.

Also, check out the filmmaker's website or read reviews of the film.