This is just my second time attending the annual Institute for Healthcare Improvement annual forum – one of about 6,000 medical professionals, leaders, and patient advocates in attendance. For those of you on Twitter, I’ve seen familiar faces here, including…
There’s a long-standing argument that I’ve been dragged into with a group that calls itself “new systems thinkers.” They loudly criticize Lean as being altogether awful (with the alternative, predictably, being their services). One of them wrote a blog post…
The Lean Enterprise Institute has posted the follow up text Q&A by John Toussaint MD and Roger Gerard PhD, co-authors of the book On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry. These were extra questions from…
I’m going to use this blog post / page to collect published statistics about the impact the Lean management philosophy has had on healthcare quality and patient safety. I will update this over time and this page can be accessed…
It’s time for a Lean Blog feature where I throw a few links at you – articles I’ve saved and read that maybe don’t merit a full post, but are worth sharing and making a brief comment on. I often…
It seems to be an annual event to see a news story about a New Zealand emergency department, Dunedin Hospital (not pictured at left) as reported by the Otago Times. It’s year three and the board “wants some traction” and…
I had a good long chat with a former client (from my J&J days) the other day. I call him “The Synthesizer,” and no he’s not an electronic keyboard. We’re working together on a business journal article about their Lean…
Thanks to FierceHealthcare.com for publishing my guest article on the front page of their site: “How lean management helped hospitals avoid layoffs.” The article features quotes from two of our Healthcare Value Network organizations, ThedaCare and Akron Children’s Hospital, and…
In what looks like a badly Photoshopped cover – it’s a real photo, I’ve confirmed – INSIGHT Magazine, a Wisconsin business publication, has an article worth reading about Dr. John Toussaint and ThedaCare. The article link is here: “Dr. Ideas:…
Reminder: I’ll be on “The Lean Nation” today at 4 PM (more details) In this article about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, “Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s (rather run-of-the-mill) house: Facebook founder gives rare glimpse into his private life on Oprah“, there is…
Back in July, e-Patient Dave deBronkart noticed an article in the Health Leaders publication called “Taking On the Cost Drivers.” It inspired him to reach out to me and Alice Lee, from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to write…
Generally, with the term “lean,” it’s easy for people to leap to a conclusion that Lean equals layoffs. This is often the fear in healthcare when Lean consultants are involved, especially since consultants usually equals cost cutting in healthcare, which…
