Joining me for Episode #340 of the podcast is Dr. Joy Furnival CEng MIET, an experienced senior NHS manager, improvement leader, and chartered engineer. I first crossed paths with Joy at a Lean healthcare event in England back in 2007.…
Joining me for Episode #339 of the podcast is Charles Protzman, author of a great number of Lean healthcare books. Today, we are talking about a book that he wrote for a broader audience, The BASICS Lean Implementation Model: Lean…
I’m going to be away from the blog (and Twitter) through July 13, but here are some blog posts from Julys of years past. 2015: See How a British Psychiatrist is Using LEGO Videos to Explain Lean Healthcare 2014: Weird Al’s Hilarious…
A collection of creative videos was recently brought to my attention and I’d like to share them here. They are created by Dr. Mark Harrison (@leanpsychiatry), a psychiatrist for an NHS Trust. He created the videos by taking photos of…
In American healthcare, there’s a growing gap between hospitals and clinics that are being innovative and those who are stuck in the “way it’s always been done” mode. For example, innovative primary care clinics are using a combination of better…
It’s easy for people to think that Lean is about cost-cutting. That would be wrong, but many people associate Lean with cost cutting. Cost cutting is the old mindset. The old hack-and-slash approach, which focuses on layoffs or “everybody cut…
tl;dr: Push vs. pull in healthcare gets debated more than it needs to be. What actually matters is flow — the right care, in the right place, at the right time. Better flow means less waste, fewer delays, and better…
Here is another question emailed to me by a reader, so I’m answering it here (with the reader’s permission and removing any identifying details): The question: I am currently faced with a problem with scheduling breast biopsies. The next available…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest post is an excerpt from the book Remarkable by Toby LaVigne. Toby’s bio can be found at the bottom of this post. In this chapter from the book, Toby writes about a good friend of mine and…
After the nice response to Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, I often get asked, “So, what’s your next book going to be?” (other than the upcoming Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen, that is). I’ve had people suggest writing something about…
Don’t forget my reader survey – share your feedback and have a chance at some great prizes. In November, I blogged about a panel at the Lab Quality Confab that included Dr. Richard Zarbo from Henry Ford Health System (see…
TL;DR: Many “Lean Six Sigma” programs misrepresent Lean as a set of tools layered onto Six Sigma. Lean is not a toolbox–it’s a management system and culture rooted in flow, quality, and respect for people. When Lean is reduced to…
