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.
Episode #78 brings a very special guest, Sorrel King, to talk about systems, communication, and patient safety. Sorrel’s 18-month old daughter, Josie, was the victim of a series of preventable medical errors at a world-renowned hospital, passing away in the…
Leanies of the World, Unite! TL;DR: Not everything labeled “Lean” is truly Lean–many worker complaints stem from L.A.M.E. (Lean As Misguidedly Executed), not the Toyota Production System itself. Real Lean is a management philosophy built on respect for people, problem…
telegraphjournal.com – Lean process, big results I’ll write more on this topic of unions and Lean tomorrow, but I wanted to share this story from Canada. The New Brunswick provincial health system is going to start working with the Lean…
Article: How Toyota Defies Gravity While researching an upcoming presentation, I found this FORTUNE article from 1997. I was looking for a reference to Toyota letting its competitors (yes, Ford, GM, and Chrysler) tour its factories. Why Would Toyota Let…
Womack and Jones video on spread – Blog – ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value From John Toussaint’s blog, this video starts with a question about (I’m paraphrasing) how do you balance continuous innovation (in how “Lean” works in a hospital)…
by Dan Markovitz Long-time readers of this blog (and my own) know that I focus on bringing lean techniques to individual work habits. One topic I often cover is how interruptions — from email, phone calls, colleagues — creates inefficiency…
This was in Inc. magazine, a quote from a favorite of mine, Seth Godin (click on the graphic for a larger, easier to read view): The scientific method is the basis of PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), also known as the Deming Cycle…
TL;DR: A Grey’s Anatomy episode offers a sharp lesson in patient safety: when leaders focus on who to blame instead of what broke in the system, learning stops and risk persists. Real improvement comes from fixing chaotic systems–not punishing individuals…
Six Best Practice Elements of ThedaCare’s Collaborative Care Model Here’s an article from Becker’s Hospital Review about the six best practices of Lean-based Collaborative Care at Thedacare. This is the same model that was featured a few months back on…
Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare Blatant self-promotion time: I will be teaching this workshop for the second time (after the Philly debut last month) in Cambridge at the LEI office December 2 and 3. Here is a video where…
Industry Week Webinar – To Register Technical note: I’ve been having some problems where “leanblog.org” gives a “404 not found” error, but “www.leanblog.org” works just fine. I am working on getting this resolved permanently. Thanks for your patience if this…
Wachter’s World: Can Patients Help Ensure Their Own Safety? More Importantly, Why Should They Have To? The whole subject of asking patients and families to participate in safeguarding their own safety is something I’ve written about before and the idea…