I’m still reflecting on what a great conference the Society for Health Systems put on again this year. Here are some highlights from other talks… (see also my previous two posts)… if you’re curious about “Shocking Doctors” in the post…
Listen My guest for episode #166 is Julie Bartels, Executive Vice President, National Healthcare Information at the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. In this episode, we are talking about their new program, the Healthcare Clinical Business Intelligence Network (CBIN). Julie tells…
I’ve been talking to a lot of healthcare organizations about Kaizen and continuous improvement. There are many organizations embracing the methods that Joe Swartz and I wrote about in Healthcare Kaizen. I think there’s some momentum building out there for…
Listen: My guest for episode #165 is Chris Vogel, President & CEO of Compass Affiliates. I’ve met Chris before at an LEI Lean Transformation Summit and he is doing a learning session at this year’s Summit, to be held March…
My reader survey (with prizes) is still open through Friday. I recently stumbled across the movie Meet the Fockers on TV recently and was reminded of the “circle of trust” (Robert DeNiro, pictured at left, see video here). It’s…
Last year, the Institute of Medicine released its latest report titled, “Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America.” The report endorsed Lean as one strategy for improving the problems in our health care…
My guest for episode #163 is Dr. Gregory R. Johnson, the Chief Medical Officer at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In this episode, we talk about how Parkview is using Lean to cope with today’s challenging environment, how Dr.…
As part of my occasional “A Lean Guy Reads…” series, I found some ideas related to Lean in the current issue of Fast Company magazine. Click on any of the images for a larger view or what I was reading.…
As he mentioned on his blog, John Toussaint has co-authored a piece that was published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings: “The Promise of Lean in Health Care” (PDF). John is excited that the article will be read by many physicians,…
Last week, the New York Times published a piece called “Don’t Just Talk About Change. Show It,” written by Mick Wilz, an employee at Sur-Seal, a family-owned business in Cincinnati. As part of a Lean initiative (as evidenced by their…
Reflecting more on my recent Japan tour (see previous posts) one word came up in my notes: artifacts. One dictionary definition of that term is straightforward: “any object made by human beings, especially with a view to subsequent use.” Another…
Thanks to my friend Matt May (check out his new book The Laws of Subtraction) for hosting “5 Questions” about my latest book Healthcare Kaizen. Matt asked some great questions and I hope you enjoy the discussion. Healthcare Kaizen: 5…
