Healthcare improvement isn’t about working harder—it’s about better systems, better leadership, and a culture that supports learning and speaking up. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on Lean healthcare, patient safety, quality improvement, leadership, and continuous improvement. Many of these posts draw on real hospital experiences and lessons from Deming, Toyota, and frontline healthcare teams, with a consistent emphasis on respect for people and learning from mistakes.
“Kaizen” is a Japanese word that means “change for the better” in the context of ongoing “continuous improvement.” The so-called “kaizen event,” a weeklong focused improvement effort is one type of kaizen, but it’s not the only type. A powerful…
I love employee ideas and continuous improvement, but I really dislike suggestion boxes. As I’ve said, they are well intended, but the whole suggestion box process is usually pretty ineffective. I see more and more articles about the failures of…
My Healthcare Kaizen co-author Joe Swartz works in Indianapolis in the Franciscan St. Francis Health System. They use the term “kaizeneer” to describe those employees and staff members who initiate and participate in “kaizen,” or continuous improvement, activities. One of…
Continuing this first week of the year’s theme of using Lean principles to improve our lives, I’m going to write about two pieces of technology that can help prevent two different types of health problems, particularly in the elderly. The…
At first I thought this post was stretching this week’s blog theme of applying Lean principles in everyday life, but I think it actually does fit quite well, at least for those of us for whom sports is a part…
Listen: Episode #134 is a different topic than usual. Instead of strictly talking Lean, today’s discussion is about broader issues of healthcare quality and the United States military. Joining me are Daniel Sullivan, President and General Manager of the The…
Over the weekend, I went to a local Texas Target store to buy a Christmas-themed gift card. I checked a few registers and all I could find were for new babies, birthdays, or “LOVE.” Not a single Christmas, winter, or…
Thanks to the readers who sent this article my way and thanks to the authors for mentioning and citing my book, Lean Hospitals. The article “Finding a Balance between “Value Added” and Feeling Valued: Revising Models of Care, The human…
This article caught my eye recently: “Canada leads in surgical mishaps.” By “leads,” the article means they have a high number of mishaps (which is really more of a trailing position, not a leading one). I’m not here to quibble…
Yesterday, the MIT SDM program hosted a webinar by Dr. Jack Billi from University of Michigan. I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Billi a few times during my involvement in the Healthcare Value Network. He is an extremely…
A returning guest for episode #132, we are joined by author and professor Bob Emiliani. Today, we are chatting about some videos he recently posted to his website… 10-year-old videos that document executives from Virginia Mason Medical Center, now considered…
This time of year, every publication under the sun (print and web) has a “Holiday Gift Guide” to share. In that spirit, I am happy to present the first Lean Blog Holiday Gift Guide. This guide is a mix of…
