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.
I am happy to be partnering with my friends at Gemba Academy to present the 2nd in their free Lean webinar series. My webinar is called “Putting the Continuous Back in Continuous Improvement” and it will be presented on Wednesday,…
Regular readers know that I have been working for a software startup, KaiNexus, as we announced in June, in addition to my writing, consulting and speaking work. It’s been a busy and exciting year! Our co-founder and CEO, Greg Jacobson…
The Management Improvement Carnival was started by my friend and fellow LeanDaily blogger John Hunter of the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog. My job here is to share some noteworthy and thought provoking posts from the past few weeks from…
As mentioned in Monday’s post with Podcast #131 (Paul Borawski, CEO of the American Society for Quality), ASQ had a contest where members could submit videos about the impact of Quality on their careers and lives. The page for their…
This made news on Wednesday – Dr. Donald M. (Don) Berwick stepped down as CMS Administrator: “Harvard professor Don Berwick resigns as Medicare chief.” I had supported Dr. Berwick… but it didn’t really mean much because I’m not a U.S.…
Here is the third short, simple Kaizen education video from KaiNexus. We are embedding these videos into our web-based software, to provide short tips and hints for our healthcare users. We’re also making the videos available on our YouTube Channel and our education videos playlist. Subscribe…
Updated: There’s now a link to the GBMP video at the bottom of the post. I have long admired the Lean work of Sami Bahri, DDS and I consider him a friend (and have had a chance to visit his…
It’s been three years since the first edition of my book Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement was published. The second edition came out last week and I’ve tried to reflect a bit on what has changed…
The more I visit different hospitals, the more I tend to roll my eyes at the different signs that aim to remind staff and/or visitors to follow proper hand hygiene practices. These signs are often part of an arms race…
It’s official – the 2nd revised edition of my first book, Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement, is now shipping from Amazon.com! Other country sites, like Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk don’t have their inventory yet. Ah, paper and…
On last Thursday’s episode of The Office, Dwight Schrute installed a software system that he called an “accountability booster,” aka the “doomsday device,” as it was referred to by the rest of the office staff. There had been a number…
I’m back in Ontario again this week, giving three more short workshops about Healthcare Kaizen at three different hospitals (after seven hospitals in five days last week). Last night, coming through customs at the Toronto airport, I was asked by…
