Hospital Advertises 3-Second Savings – Will the Public Care?

Hat tip to Helen Z. for finding this full-page print ad in the New York Times. The full ad appears below in this post, but the primary element of the ad is what you see at left – it says…
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.

Hat tip to Helen Z. for finding this full-page print ad in the New York Times. The full ad appears below in this post, but the primary element of the ad is what you see at left – it says…
First off, there’s nothing about “Lean” per se in this linked article from Quality Digest: “New York Pediatric ICU Ward Off Central-Line Infections for Entire Year“. That said, there are elements that are very similar to both Lean and the…

I was asked a really good question today, a simple question that probably has a complex answer: How many hospitals have gotten discouraged and quit their Lean efforts? It’s a simple question that doesn’t have a simple answer. OK, maybe…
I’m very interested in the interface between healthcare architecture, space design, and processes. I’ve seen so many cases where poor design (often done without the input of nurses, medical technologists, and other front-line staff) leads to systemic inefficiency. Classic bad…
I’ve participated in the last two Society for Health Systems conferences, as a presenter, and I’m looking forward to attending the 2011 event in Orlando, FL next February (17 to 20). It’s an excellent event – both the content and…

Lean thinkers and TPS advocates sometimes get a bad rap as being Luddites. That’s not true, I’d say it’s more that Lean thinkers have a healthy skepticism toward technology being a “silver bullet.” You typically need good process in addition…
One of the people I’ve been fortunate to meet in the last year is Dave deBronkart, aka “e-Patient Dave.” I saw e-PD present at the HIMSS conference this year and we were able to spend some time together during some…

I’ve had the pleasure to work with Dr. John Toussaint, CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, over the past year. John’s no “ivory tower” guy, he speaks from his practical and hard-fought experience as the CEO and Lean…
If you’re a regular reader of my Lean Blog, you might know more about preventing Hospital Acquired Infections than many healthcare CEOs do, says a report in the Washington Post: “Hospital infection deaths caused by ignorance and neglect, survey finds.”…
Forgive me if some Texas pride comes through in this post, as well as some former-client pride. The clinical laboratory team at Children’s Medical Center Dallas was featured in the peer-reviewed Medical Laboratory Observer for their combination of Lean and…

TL;DR: The New York Times showed that Lean healthcare isn’t about “factory medicine,” but about removing waste so clinicians can focus on patients. When grounded in respect for people and strong leadership, Lean improves quality, access, and cost–while misapplied versions…

This is going to seem like a political rant, but I promise this is mainly a post about Lean and healthcare, or at least it’s about dysfunctional parallels in both settings. It was said that President Ronald Reagan and Speaker…