TL;DR: Long VA wait times weren’t the result of “bad apples.” They were the predictable outcome of bad management systems that used unrealistic targets, bonuses, and fear-based accountability–creating incentives to game the numbers instead of improving care. Look at the…
As a former GM employee and a GM customer, I’m really fascinated by the reaction of the public, the media, and Congress to the recalls and scandal over ignition switch problems in some GM small cars from recent years. The…
In 2009, I wrote about a nurses’ union in New Brunswick that supported Lean because they realized this methodology could help reduce waiting times and improve working conditions. It’s win Yet, as part of the recent politicized Lean healthcare brew-ha-ha in…
It’s easy for an organization to say they are “doing Lean” or they have “started a Lean transformation.” They might hire a consultant or put out a press release. Maybe there’s an optimistic (but premature) news article about how the…
I hope you’ll consider coming to the 5th annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, being held in Los Angeles, June 4th and 5th, 2014. The Summit is sponsored by the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and the Lean Enterprise Institute. It’s…
Listen: My guest for Episode 188 has been a leading voice in the Lean community for 25 years, Daniel T. Jones, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy, based in the UK. Dan collaborated with Jim Womack on the…
Thanks to the organizing sponsor Protegra and other sponsors, including my friends at LeanKit, for having me give a keynote talk about the Software Development and Evolution Conference (SDEC) 2013 Conference in Winnipeg yesterday (Storify summary here). I always enjoy…
“Approximately 8 to 10% of the individuals who walk through our doors are being hurt by us,” says David Musyj, CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital. That’s one of the first things you hear in this CBC program “Rate My Hospital,”…
The list of stuff I’ve read and wanted to blog about has grown… that inventory becomes a post like this. Here are links to some varied articles I’ve read recently that might be of interest on a number of Lean…
Here are links to some more articles I’ve read recently that might be of interest on a number of Lean related topics: Twin boys die after morphine overdose (understaffing, poor training, & other system issues) Two years on, gov’t says…
Oh geez, that’s an awful pun in the post title. Sorry. As an increasing number of health systems are using “Lean design” approaches for renovating or building healthcare facilities, there are some articles, a book, and a video that I…
It’s been nice to see the “lean design” approach taking hold in healthcare over the past few years. I think the first book on the subject was a “manifesto” by an architect, David Chambers: Efficient Healthcare – Overcoming Broken Paradigms.…