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My guests for Episode #435 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Sunil Khushalani, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in Addiction Psychiatry, and Antonio DePaolo, PhD, a transformation executive and a Baldrige Fellow with over 22 years of experience in improvement science.
My guests today are the co-authors of the new book, released in December, titled Transforming Mental Healthcare: Applying Performance Improvement Methods to Mental Healthcare.
They are a physician (psychiatrist more specifically) and an industrial engineer:
- Sunil Khushalani, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in Addiction Psychiatry
- Antonio DePaolo, PhD, a transformation executive and a Baldrige Fellow with over 22 years of experience in improvement science.
Today, we discuss topics and questions including:
- I'm always fascinated to hear your ‘lean origin stories” if you will
- Antonio? 16 years in manufacturing, Lean and Six Sigma, GM/Delphi, Sensei Nakao from Shingijutsu
- Suni? At Shepard Pratt – Chip Davis, patient safety course, Steve Spear “Fixing Healthcare“, the “Pittsburgh Way” book, “Perfecting Patient Care” with Spear and Paul O'Neill
- Antonio coming into healthcare? Via Stiles Associates (our sponsor)
- Experts in behavior — lessons in behavioral health?
- Ron Oslin webinar on Motivational Interviewing (still trying to find the new location on lean.org) – PDF of his slides
- “Addicted to the status quo” — How does this idea apply to leaders?
- “A conservative 30-50% of every step in the mental healthcare process does not help patients feel better or stay better”??
- Motivations for Lean then and there?
- Sunil: hearing about quality & safety problems?
- How did you approach transformation / Lean in the Mental Healthcare setting?
- 1 in 5 Americans experience a “mental illness” each year — which is most common? How many people don't get access to the right treatment?
- When should people reach out for mental health care?
- How do you define Lean Daily Management?
- Burnout amongst healthcare workers?
- Sunil – tell us more about the natural reaction to being told?
- Don't blame people for being resistant to change
- Pitfalls / lessons learned??
Also, check out the Facebook page for their book.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

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If you’re working to build a culture where people feel safe to speak up, solve problems, and improve every day, I’d be glad to help. Let’s talk about how to strengthen Psychological Safety and Continuous Improvement in your organization.






