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.
The News-Gazette.com:Christie campaign has its seed in Toyota production system Here’s another link to a story about Lean progress in a hospital, this time in Champaign, Illinois. It’s especially good they are looking at reducing patient waiting times, MRI, CT…
Clinton gets close-up glimpse of nurse’s life – USATODAY.com It’s probably all just political posturing, but Hillary Clinton recently spent two hours shadowing and observing a nurse at a hospital in Nevada. The New York senator spent more than two…
John Toussaint, M.D. – Profile From the University of Iowa alumni site, here’s a nice Q&A with one of the leading advocates for Lean in healthcare, Dr. John Toussaint, CEO of ThedaCare, which is mentioned often here on the Lean…
Running a hospital: Our Joint Commission Report The headline is my modification of a Deming expression, that management’s job is prediction. Statistical process control was one way of predicting future outcomes of a process (if you have a statistically stable…
In support of the book I’m currently writing, I have created a comprehensive survey for hospitals about Lean practices and implementation. Click Here to take survey The intended audience for the survey is healthcare only, whether you are already implementing…
Listen: LeanBlog Podcast #29 features a very special guest, Dr. Sami Bahri, “The World’s First Lean Dentist.” If you’re thinking, “What can I learn about lean from a Dentist?”, please listen in. I think you’ll be amazed and will learn…
‘Surgery should be halted’ to clear hospital backlog Sub-optimizing decisions are a fairly universal human behavior, regardless of the industry (or continent). Lean teaches us to look at “value streams” that go across departments and to view operations from a…
I recorded my Podcast interview with Dr. Sami Bahri, “The First Lean Dentist,” last night. What a treat it has been to talk with Dr. Bahri. I can’t wait to get this edited and released so you all can hear…
Fury Over 84 000 pound NHS Trip To Japan (from The Northern Echo) With apologies to the Got Boondoggle? lean blog, this story is about a group of NHS hospital executives and physicians taking a study trip to Toyota in…
By Andrew Castle: Mark’s note: Today’s guest blogger is a friend of the blog and a consultant who does Lean work for the UK’s National Health Service. The following link takes you to an article on the BBC website. Essentially…
APM Marketplace (Business/Economy radio) As you’ve read here, I’m trying to help get the word out that we should be not just focusing on access to care, but also focusing on quality of care — preventable medical mistakes. I think…
In my morning reading yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to see the phrase “root cause” in two stories I’ve written about here: Preventable Medical Errors (free, Modesto Bee) Deadly Products from China ($$, WSJ) I have a post I’ve written,…