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.
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,…
I’m very excited to announce that I will be recording a LeanBlog Podcast interview with Dr. Sami Bahri, the “First Lean Dentist,” on Tuesday July 17. If you have any questions for Dr. Bahri, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com…
Parkland Hospital Deploys Galvanon’s MediKiosk(TM) in the ER to Decrease Patient Wait Times It’s been discussed here before, how hospitals are just as susceptible as manufacturers are to the “Siren Song” of technology. This time, it appears Parkland Hospital (here…
Value-Stream Improvement for the Office and Services The Lean Enterprise Institute is giving a free webinar on August 2nd, featuring a hospital that presented at the First Global Lean Healthcare Summit, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. This webinar…
After watching Michael Moore virtually melt down on CNN a few minutes ago, I had some thoughts… As I wrote about before, there are two problems with healthcare: Access to care Quality of care once it’s provided The Lean work…
Better questions, wiser answers – The Washington Times A “hat tip” to the curious cat for finding this excellent column by Clare Crawford-Mason, the producer of the outstanding documentary and DVD “Good News… Hospitals Heal Themselves.” I’m paraphrasing, but Clare…
Hard-up hospital orders staff: Don’t wash sheets – turn them over the Daily Mail Updated: The hospital denies the claims (as has a commenter on this post) This is NOT good problem solving or good patient care, if this is…
What are your thoughts? I wrote last week about my thoughts and hopes for the movie “SiCKO”. I’ve actually seen the film now. I won’t go into the details of how I managed to see it without any money flowing…
I’ve been asked a few times by blog readers about the movie “Sicko” since I work in the healthcare world. It opens tomorrow in the U.S. I haven’t paid for a Michael Moore movie since “Roger and Me,” a movie…
