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 got into the middle of this discussion on the Healthcare Management Engineers (HME) group on Yahoo. A question was posed: We’re in the process of designing a new facility for a small group of family practice physicians. I’m primarily…
I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking at a few events and forums this fall. The firm I work for will also be doing some events in Boston (September) and Dallas (November), so I hope to be able…
Modern Healthcare Online ($$) | Fierce Healthcare (free) For those not in healthcare, the Joint Commission is a non-profit hospital accreditation organization. You might remember that Paul Levy and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital posted their full Joint Commission report online…
SignOnSanDiego.com — Skeptical councilmen now brag about hospital plans From the article about a planned hospital: The district hopes to reduce the figure to $983 million over the next five years by delaying completion or only partly completing some buildings,…
The Lean Hospital The Hospitalist is a publication for physicians who practice “hospital medicine.” I had a chance to be interviewed for what turned out to be a nice overview of “how can Lean help hospitalists and their patients?” article.…
PodcasterNews – Better Process Podcast – Industry Report Mark Graban LeanHospitalsBook.com OK, this is turning into a highly promotional week for my book, hope that’s OK with everyone. Here is another podcast interview, this time conducted by Ken Rayment. I’ve…
Lean Thinking Network | Competing Podcast » Archive » Competing Mark Graban Thanks to Dwight Bowen for having me as a guest on his excellent podcast series. I chatted with Dwight about my book and the applications of Lean methods…
Why I Work In Healthcare | DailyKaizen Here’s a great one to end the day on… Lee Fried has a powerful post over on the DailyKaizen blog. Some unfortunately heartache for him and his family, but an important reminder of…
WHO Proposes Checklist to Reduce Surgery Errors : NPR A surgical revolution: checklist that could prevent thousands of deaths Thanks to long-time readers Chet and Andrew for pointing out these similar stories, one from NPR in the U.S. and one…
From Modern Healthcare (link no longer available), Tom Peters throws a few verbal bombs at the healthcare industry: Quality gains needn’t be costly, Peters tells HFMA Financial executives can do more to improve healthcare quality and it won’t cost more…
I’m a proud member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and their sub-organization the Society for Health Systems. I try to contribute to the cause with my “Everyday Lean” blog series that they host on their site. I wrote a…
Leading article: Infected by political calculation This isn’t a “Lean” story, per se, but it still caught my eye. Hospital-acquired infections are a major problem throughout the world. As this commentary from The Independent points out: Britain has the worst…