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.
Today’s post is a case study submitted by Abdul N. Mansour, Director Lean & Process Improvement at Scottsdale (AZ) Healthcare. The material here and the PDF downloads are shared with his permission. This project is a noteworthy story in that…
Last week, I posted a podcast with Mike George, founder of Strong America Now, an organization that is promoting Lean and Six Sigma methods to our political leaders and government. Much of the discussion, maybe unfortunately, was focused on Mr.…
After a week of serious topics and sometimes pointed discussion, let’s end with a funny sign… well wait, there’s a serious story behind this sign too. This is a sign from a New Zealand hospital, sent via email by a…
As I’ve worked with different hospitals and different leaders, I’ve sometimes wondered if there’s been a study on the differences in results between hospitals that have a physician CEO vs. those that have a non-physician CEO. Which hospitals have better…
This blog post contains a real job posting, found online. Let’s make this a reader participation challenge. I see maybe three things “wrong” or at least questionable about this posting. What say you? I’ll let the readers chime in before…
Here’s a nice video that popped up on YouTube from the Toronto-area University Health Network system, with healthcare professionals talking about how Lean has led to a better work environment, a new culture, and an increased capacity to care for…
It’s nowhere near as important as yesterday’s topic of employee and patient safety, but my last two days of using the new Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” operating system made me think of some classic change management challenges that might…
What happens when a Fortune 500 CEO brings a long-term mindset and a bold commitment to safety into healthcare? In this conversation with Paul O’Neill, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and CEO of Alcoa, we explore how leadership, transparency, and aiming…
One reason I love applying Lean thinking in new arenas as my career progresses is that each shift in industry leads to new challenges and new experiences, which forces you to challenge your thinking… and each change in Lean direction…
Back in the manufacturing world, the distinction between “push” and “pull” is often much more obvious than it is in healthcare. Push production occurs when products are built based on the forecast were something other than actual customer needs. In…
I was at the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value office a few months ago when Dr. John Toussaint reported that he had gotten a call from Dr. Don Berwick, the head of Medicare and Medicaid. Dr. Berwick wanted a collection…
Listen: This episode is a discussion with two leaders from Group Health Cooperative, a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system based in Seattle, Washington. My guests are Claire Trescott, MD, Primary Care Medical Director, and Alicia Eng, Vice President of Primary…
