Lean in the Kitchen; Weekend Urgent Care for the NHS
I hope y’all had a nice Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S. It’s a global audience for the blog, but I had the take the day off from Lean (other than this post for the holiday). I spent a…
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All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
10 Key Lean Mindsets for Factories, Hospitals, Startups, and More
TL;DR: Lean works across factories, hospitals, startups, and services because it’s built on shared mindsets, not tools. These include customer focus, respect for people, going to the gemba, avoiding blame, solving problems at the root, and resisting “command and control.”…
Is Your Lean Journey Being Embraced With “Open Arms?” Are you Practicing Lean “Faithfully?”
The phrase “Lean journey” is used widely to describe an organization’s transformation over time. It’s either a phrase that invokes helpful imagery or it’s a horrible cliché. I was speaking at a Lean event last week and I kept hearing…
Dr. Erin DuPree on High Reliability, Preventable Harm, and Transforming Healthcare with Lean and Six Sigma
Joining me for episode #222 of the podcast is Erin S. DuPree, M.D., FACOG, the Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare. Dr. DuPree is an OB/GYN by training, was previously the Chief Medical…
Gemba in the NICU: More Insights from our “Kaizen Live” Experience at Franciscan
In my first post about the on-site Kaizen learning experience at Franciscan St. Francis Health, an event I came to call “Kaizen Live,” I wrote about some of the initial presentations and discussions from Franciscan leaders. You can also see…
U.S. Hospitals Have the Best E.R. Care for Kids, But Aren’t Prepared For Them?
There’s been a back-and-forth of views about the state of pediatric emergency medicine recently in the Wall Street Journal. Let me start first, actually, with the more recent statement, a rebuttal from Michael Gerardi M.D., FACEP, President of the American College of Emergency…
Throwback Thursday – What Did a Mid 1990s Textbook Say About Lean?
My friend Ryan, who works at a hospital in Canada, sent me a few pictures of an Industrial Engineering textbook that he used almost 20 years ago. He wrote: “I was cleaning up my upstairs when I came across a…
Safety Huddles in Healthcare: How Daily Huddles Improve Patient Safety
Following up on yesterday’s post on seemingly successful experiments with ACOs, here’s another article, from HBR, on “safety huddles” in healthcare: “How Every Hospital Should Start the Day“ I’ve seen some hospitals using daily safety huddles. It sends a powerful message…
An Experiment That Works in Healthcare: Pioneer ACOs
You might be considered “wonky” for enjoying the topics discussed here at LeanBlog.org… but that’s fine. This is a safe environment for being wonky about Lean and improvement. From Vox.com, Sarah Kliff normally does a great job covering healthcare topics,…
Are There Any Hospitals That Should NOT Try Lean or Kaizen?
I was asked an interesting and thought-provoking question the other day: “Are there any hospitals where you’d suggest not trying to adopt Lean or situations where it might be counterproductive or harmful?”This question came from a PhD management professor who…
Dr. Atul Gawande’s Article on Reducing the Waste of Unnecessary Healthcare
I’ve been a big fan of Dr. Atul Gawande’s writing for a long time (see previous posts about him and his work). His latest article is out, which I was able to read last night. It just came out (or…
How this Kaizen Prevents New Moms From Feeling Like They’re Being “Stabbed in the Heart”
I wanted to share a recent Kaizen improvement story that I heard from a hospital. Great things can happen when we: Imagine you’re a new mother and you’re recovering in a room after your postpartum care. You’ve been cared for…
