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 recorded an upcoming LeanBlog Podcast with Steven J. Spear yesterday. Here is that episode: He’s promoting his new book Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition and How Great Companies Can Catch Up and Win. Update: the…
Vaccination available at hospital’s drive-through – The Boston Globe Have you gotten your flu shot yet? You might be able to find a “drive-through” way of getting that shot, if you’re lucky. Some clinics are allowing patients to get their…
LeanBlog Podcast Episode #53 is a conversation with Patrick M. Anderson, the Executive Director of Chugachmiut, the Tribal consortium created to promote self-determination to the seven Native communities of the Chugach Region. I met Patrick at a Lean conference, where…
Making lean thinking work in the NHS Here’s an article about a British hospital. I’ve seen the CEO, David Fillingham, speak about Lean and it sounds like they are really trying to embrace Lean thinking into the hospital’s culture and…
Running a hospital: It’s the economy You might have seen in the news that hospitals showed record profits in 2007, according to Modern Healthcare. U.S. community hospitals enjoyed record profits in 2007, posting $43 billion more in revenue than expenses…
I wanted to remind you about an online event I’m presenting for Thursday afternoon and tell you about a new event (local to Dallas) that I’m attending Thursday night. THE DARK REPORT presents: How To Find And Eliminate All The…
Last year, I conducted a survey in advance of my book, Lean Hospitals. I’ve been a bit lax about sharing some of the results that I didn’t include in the book. One question was about the use of “events.” As…
Hospitals try automakers’ practice of building efficiency in effort to trim costs | The Detroit News | detnews.com Here’s a good overview article about some Lean activity going on in hospitals around the Detroit area. I can understand the bias…
Bedside Manner: Advocating for a Relative in the Hospital (WSJ) WSJ Health Blog (free): Five Tips for Helping a Family Member in the Hospital I’ve written before about my questions of why so many hospitals abdicate their leadership responsibility for…
The Dark Report presents a new audio conference on November 13, 2008… For those of you in hospital labs (not sure what percentage of my readership falls into that category), you might be interested in the following upcoming audio conference…
Hospital aims for shorter wait times | Otago Daily Times Online Here’s today’s positive blog post. For cynicism and negativity on a different Lean topic from yesterday afternoon, scroll down or click here. Be warned, the article I blogged about…
Neatness Counts at Kyocera and at Others in the 5S Club – WSJ.com I’m going to violate a rule I have to try not to blog when I’m frustrated or angry. Here goes… Today’s front page (argh, front page) article…
