Robert De Niro, #Lean Thinker?
The other day, I was reading the latest issue of Esquire magazine, with an interview with the famed actor Robert De Niro. One thing he said reminded me of Lean and the Toyota Production System:
Tag Healthcare
Healthcare Improvement Through Lean, Leadership, and Learning
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.
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Reader Question: Support and “First Responders” for Healthcare Professionals
Here is a new reader question from Steve Palmreuter in Michigan. He raises a topic that I’ve been thinking about lately, so I’m happy to share it with you (with his permission). You might remember Steve as I blogged about…
Reader Question: When the Stated Values Don’t Match Daily Reality
I received a question from a reader, a retiree from a manufacturing company who is now a volunteer for a healthcare organization. We have exchanged messages before about opportunities to apply Lean thinking in a faith-based mission-driven organization like this,…
Notes From My Second Day at #IHI 2011
Following up my notes from Day 1, I’m sharing my notes from the second full day I attended on Wednesday, December 8 2010. Here, in the last day of the IHI National Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare, I saw…
Notes From My First Day at #IHI 2011
This is just my second time attending the annual Institute for Healthcare Improvement annual forum – one of about 6,000 medical professionals, leaders, and patient advocates in attendance. For those of you on Twitter, I’ve seen familiar faces here, including…
Preventing “Mid-Project” Blues?
I was recently invited by SixSigmaIQ.com to participate by giving a response to the question “How to beat the mid-project blues?” – looking at Lean as a project (or looking at projects in the midst of a Lean transformation. I’m…
Reader Question: Short Definition of Lean?
Here is a new reader question, shared with permission (as always). The reader, who works at a hospital and health system, was asked by a colleague to provide a short definition of Lean that could be referred to on a…
Mini-Review: First Three Chapters of the Virginia Mason Medical Center Lean Book
I’ve finally started reading the new book by Charles Kenney, Transforming Health Care: Virginia Mason Medical Center’s Pursuit of the Perfect Patient Experience, and I wanted to post a mini-review of the first three chapters. You can also buy (cheaper…
BCG White Paper on Lean in Government and Public Services
I’ve written occasionally about Lean efforts in government (see a list of posts here). There are formal Lean government efforts at varying levels of maturity and formality in a number of states, including Iowa, Jacksonville, Michigan, and Paul Akers’ LeanAmerica.org…
Video on Creating Value in Healthcare
Here’s a video produced by Jim Handyside, embedded here with his permission. More inspirational than educational, there are still some concepts related to Lean and Dr. Deming’s PDSA cycle… Create Value from jim handyside on Vimeo.
Lean in Healthcare Labs: Dr. Peter Patterson on Histopathology and Continuous Improvement
Podcast #104 is a discussion with Dr. Peter Patterson (@IDrPete), a friend of mine and the Lean Blog the past few years. He wrote a guest post for me back in 2009 (A Breakthrough in Training: Call it “Near-TWI”) and…
A Sad Report from an M.D. Friend, Overprocessing Driven by the Legal System
As I blogged about on Friday, I was back at my alma mater, Northwestern, for a football game this weekend– well, actually, I was at Wrigley Field instead of our usual home stadium. The “confines” of “The Friendly Confines” (as…
