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 saw this on the national cable news two nights ago, the horrifying story of a Denton TX woman whose house was basically destroyed by a bulldozer. Was it a runaway bulldozer? Nope, different type of “accident.” Workers were supposed…
The Winnipeg Free Press has an article about their local St. Boniface Hospital, a member of the LEI/ThedaCare network I’m involved with called the Healthcare Value Network. About 40 of us from different Network member organizations visited last Thursday and…
Due out in June is a book that I think will be an important one for the Lean Healthcare movement. That book is about the Lean journey of the Wisconsin health system ThedaCare. It’s called On the Mend: Transforming Healthcare…
I’m blogging notes and thoughts as I watch the Discovery Channel documentary by actor Dennis Quaid and others — “Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm” that first aired April 24 at 8 am EDT. With laptop and…
I’ve been a fan of the “Lean Startups” work of Eric Ries since last year, so I’m happy to be producing a free LEI webinar called “Lessons from Lean Startups,” to be presented live on April 28 at 2 PM…
In an article (“Assembly required: Health care from the Toyota factory floor“) from Canada’s National Post newspaper says Lean healthcare is “taking Canadian healthcare by storm.” The piece leads with some work done by Windsor’s Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital – a…
You might be familiar with the case where the actor Dennis Quaid’s twins were harmed by an overdose at the famed Cedar-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. I blogged about it originally in late 2007 as the post “How Often Must…
When I was in Sweden in late January, I had a chance to visit the Capio Saint Göran Hospital in Stockholm. I saw many amazing things, including Lean practices and culture. I haven’t taken the time to write about this yet,…
Our guest for Podcast #89 is Keith Russell, a Global Continuous Improvement Leader at AstraZeneca R&D. I met Keith at a recent Lean & Six Sigma conference for Pharma R&D where we both presented. Keith has substantial in-house R&D experience…
Recently, I was able to visit VIBCO, a Lean manufacturing company in Rhode Island. Company President Karl Wadensten is the host of “The Lean Nation” radio show. It was my third time visiting the factory in the last six months,…
TL;DR: Patient safety leader Lucian Leape’s critique appears less about Lean itself and more about “L.A.M.E.”–Lean As Misguidedly Executed. True Lean in healthcare prioritizes patient safety, quality, and respect for people; when those are missing, the problem isn’t Lean–it’s how…
I’m a bit hesitant to blog about a bad experience with a doctor’s office and waiting time. There are multiple “draft” posts I’ve started to write, left saved out there without being published, as it seems a bit like a…