The dates have been announced for the 4th annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. It will be held June 5-6, 2013. Co-hosted by the Lean Enterprise Institute and the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, this has always been a great event.…
I didn’t have a post yesterday because it was the Labor Day holiday here in the U.S. While I’m not a “worker,” in the sense of an hourly employee or union worker anymore, I still enjoyed the day off with…
Preventable medical mistakes remain one of the most serious challenges in healthcare, yet many hospitals still struggle with learning from medical errors and preventing them from happening again. From emergency departments to pathology labs, the same types of errors continue…
I don’t have any first hand experience with the country, but I have had many requests for the free first chapters of my books (Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen) from Saudi Arabia over the past few years. I’m certain there…
In this month’s “ASQ Influential Voices” series, ASQ President Paul Borawski asked, “How Do You “Sell” Quality?,” particularly to senior execs and CEOs. Paul asks how we convince senior leaders that quality is essential to long term performance. Through my…
This made news on Wednesday – Dr. Donald M. (Don) Berwick stepped down as CMS Administrator: “Harvard professor Don Berwick resigns as Medicare chief.” I had supported Dr. Berwick… but it didn’t really mean much because I’m not a U.S.…
When I recently interviewed Paul O’Neill and Dr. Richard Shannon about the amazing improvements in patient safety that had been made in the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative organizations, they each seemed a bit frustrated that these simple, yet effective, methods…
Dr. Richard Shannon shares how Lean and Toyota-inspired methods dramatically reduced hospital-acquired infections at Allegheny General and the University of Pennsylvania. This episode explores leadership, standardized work, and why disciplined problem solving saves lives and reduces costs. Podcast #127 is…
On his blog, John Toussaint shared this letter from ThedaCare CEO Dean Gruner to all employees. Toussaint said the letter is inspired by Paul O’Neill and his thoughts on patient safety (you can hear my podcast with O’Neill here, as…
The following infographic was provided by LabSafety.com, a provider of lab equipment and supplies. Welcome, Fast Company readers. Please check out my main page to learn more about the Lean management methodology for business, healthcare, startups, and other industries. The…
Come back Thursday, July 21 for my new Podcast with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, where we talk about his work to improve patient safety in healthcare (see an earlier blog post here as a preview). I wish I…
Today’s post is from my friend Naida Grunden, author of the outstanding book The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare: Improving Patient Care Using Toyota Based Methods. In 2003, in a meeting room in Pittsburgh, then-Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill led a…
