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…
One of the books that’s had the biggest impact on my work is Donald Wheeler’s Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos. It’s the best guide for applying simple and powerful “statistical process control” (or SPC) practices to management data…
TL;DR: A Grey’s Anatomy episode offers a sharp lesson in patient safety: when leaders focus on who to blame instead of what broke in the system, learning stops and risk persists. Real improvement comes from fixing chaotic systems–not punishing individuals…
Toyota model transforms St. Clair Hospital ER – Manufacturing principles meet medical care Here’s a nice overview of a Pittsburgh area hospital’s Lean efforts in the emergency department. What were their results? The average wait to get into the emergency…
Article – How Toyota builds cars Here’s an article from Canada about how Toyota (an automaker) manages to be influential to Bombardier (maker of planes) and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario (a fixer of people). The article, I think,…
Here is a video from Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital (HDGH) in Windsor, Ontario Canada about their Lean effort, the video is part of their main Lean page. The video starts with John Shook talking about the real definition of “Lean” (it’s…
Hospital CEOs manage staff time, inventory to cut costs – USATODAY.com It’s nice to see a major publication covering Lean and, especially, Lean in healthcare. This time, it was USA Today who, again, did a better job than the WSJ…
You might remember a 2008 blog piece about early Lean efforts in New Zealand hospital (Dunedin hospital), where the primary aim was reducing patient waiting time. I also previously posted a link to a video about the general emergency department…
A clear vision for better health care – The Globe and Mail This is an article about Lean improvements in the British Columbia health system, where the physicians have been taught to: Identify and purge waste, and stop doing things…
Hulu – ER: Old Times – Watch the full episode now. Thanks to Bryan to bringing this episode of ER to my attention. I don’t normally watch it, but my wife always DVRs it, so I was able to watch…
Code red in the nation’s hospital corridors | CLOSE UP Thanks to Michael from New Zealand for pointing this story to me. The link above has an 11 minute video on from their equivalent of a 60 Minutes type show.…
Hospital aims for shorter wait times | Otago Daily Times Online Here’s today’s positive blog post. For cynicism and negativity on a different Lean topic from yesterday afternoon, scroll down or click here. Be warned, the article I blogged about…
