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.
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…
Today, July 7, is the birthday of Frank Gilbreth, born this day in 1868. While some of his methods arguably ranked low on the “respect for people” scale (calling doctors “boobs” for doing things wastefully), he was an innovator in…
I’m still catching up on things I wanted to blog about related to our Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit that we held June 9 and 10. It was an amazing event and something we’re looking forward to duplicating – improving and…
Listen: Episode #93 is a discussion with Jim Hearn, the Head of Lean and Six Sigma at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. This discussion was found earlier online as part of the SixSigmaIQ.com podcast series on BlogTalkRadio, so thanks to…
Mark’s note: I consider myself very fortunate to have met Patrick Anderson during my journeys in the Lean world. Patrick is the executive director of Chugachmiut, a non-profit corporation to advance the overall economic, social and cultural development of the…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest blog post comes from a good friend of this blog and long-time reader and commenter Brian Buck. Brian blogs at his site named Improve With Me, where he recently blogged about seeing healthcare and waste from…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest post is by Alica Simmer, a Senior Healthcare Consultant with KHC. I’m happy to have her as a guest blogger as we’ve had the chance to compare notes on Lean healthcare and process-space design, she’s an…
ThedaCare, the health system in Wisconsin, often gets a lot of attention for the Lean improvements in their four hospitals, but they are also doing some excellent work in redesigning primary and specialty care, as well (as highlighted in this…
This linked article (“Lean cuts Healthcare Costs at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle“) summarizes improvements and Lean methods at Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center and at the UK NHS Royal Bolton Trust hospital. Much of the VMMC story has been…
If you’ve been anywhere near a TV lately, you’ve probably heard and seen this hypnotizing “What is iPad?” commercial (YouTube link). The announcer breathlessly and shamelessly tells you how “beautiful” and “magical” the iPad is… “it’s crazy powerful,” he says,…
