"Through a collaboration with Toyota, Children's HealthSM, the leading pediatric health system in North Texas, announced today it has successfully reduced rates of central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) by 75 percent with patients in the gastroenterology unit."
Joining me today for Episode #287 is another returning guest (see Episode #198), Harry Kenworthy. We're talking about his book, which will be released on Friday, Lean Government NOW! : Increase Service, Capacity and Employee Engagement While Reducing Costs and Wastes.
One challenge with teaching Lean is that there isn’t aways a consistent definition that’s used by everybody. Some of the definitions are really bad. Some of them are just different from others. Let’s start with “different.” Is a lack of…
Any rare event creates a number of challenges when it comes to manufacturing and supply chains. We're seeing a pretty historic "spike" in demand for products like the inexpensive glasses that allow one to safety view the eclipse (our friends in the totality zone can look at the totally-eclipsed sun safely, but that's the only time).
You could call it "supply chain challenges" or a "lack of planning on my part," but I cannot find eclipse glasses anywhere. There are MANY articles online about this widespread problem -- it's been impossible to buy "eclipse glasses" anywhere. Why is this? What could have been done?
I'm excited to be playing host for a KaiNexus webinar on August 30 on a topic that's very important to me (and to many) -- patient safety.
As I mentioned yesterday on LinkedIn, estimates suggest that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States, with approximately 250,000 deaths a year... and that's four times as many deaths as caused by the opioid crisis.
Don't get me wrong, opioid abuse and what happens to patients who end up addicted is horrible. But the newly-named "national emergency" of opioid abuse gets far more attention than what I would call "the international patient safety emergency" that has been around for a long time.
I try bringing attention to the serious, yet solvable, problem of patient harm caused by preventable medical error. That's why I'm happy that we'll have three presenters on the 30th on this topic:
"Teaming with Patients to Improve Safety"
Click here to register - the webinar is free.
I’ve read most of retired General Stanley McChrystal’s excellent book Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World (I start a lot of books and finish a few). Amazon reminds me that I bought the book just over…
Joining me for Episode #285 is my friend and colleague, Karen Martin. She was previously a guest on Episode #151 where we discussed her book The Outstanding Organization and #190 we discussed her book Value Stream Mapping book. We'll be doing another podcast later this year about her next book, which is titled Clarity First: How Wise Leaders and Organizations Achieve Outstanding Performance.
Karen reached out with a provocative question that's easy to discuss, but hard to answer: "Is Lean Dead?" The reason she asked is that she's heard murmuring and read articles that ask "is it time for something new?" or if we're somehow in a "post-Lean" world.
Today, we’re looking back at a podcast that I did back in 2015 with Alan G. Robinson, PhD, co-author of many books including The Idea-Driven Organization. I’m talking about Kaizen today at the Studer Group annual “What’s Right in Healthcare” conference, so…
My guest today for episode #284 of the podcast is Dr. Margaret (Margie) Balfour, the lead author of an article, published in the The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, titled “Using Lean to Rapidly and Sustainably Transform a…
Mark’s Note: Today’s guest post was written in partnership with the Society for Health Systems, an organization I highly recommend to those who work in healthcare improvement. I recommend and participate in their annual conference and I hope you’ll join…
Mark’s Note: Last month, I was notified about Prof. Jeff Liker’s retirement from the University of Michigan after 35 years. I wasn’t able to attend the reception for him, unfortunately. But, my friend and former J&J colleague Debra Levantrosser was…
At the recent Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, there were thought provoking presentations... and we had many discussions about the role of incremental improvement vs. redesign or transformation. And, lots of discussions about imitating vs. innovating... so I explore those themes in this post.