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 positive ER post of the day…. here’s a nice video of a news story from the UK. The physician being interviewed does a good job of explaining Lean. “Accident and Emergency” is the UK term for “Emergency Room” Reducing…
Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help Click here for a more positive ER story posted on the same day… a UK hospital that used Lean to reduce ER waiting time dramatically… read this and think about…
U.S. hospitals try to pick up the ER pace You might have seen this sad case of a fatally broken ER on the news over the weekend and I have more comments on that later. On a more positive light,…
FT.com / Business Life – In pursuit of happiness: Interesting quote from Jeff Liker in the Financial Times about TPS and an example of a hospital in the UK: “”There is no evidence that happy cows make better milk, and…
Last week, in calling for “guest bloggers,” I hinted at a “special project” that will be keeping me busy over the next few months. The tentative title is: “Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety and Employee Satisfaction” It will be…
Freedom from Command & Control: Rethinking Management for Lean Service Here is a fascinating post from John Seddon at his website www.lean-service.com (link is dead) about ambulances “making their numbers”: The stupidity of measuring the eight-minute response time has been…
YouTube – Improving the ER on ER I don’t always watch the NBC show ER, but this portion caught my attention when my wife was watching the final episode of the season and I clumsily taped it with my digital…
The Informed Patient – WSJ.com This article from the WSJ talks about a trend where patients (or, more often, family members of patients) who were injured or killed by medical mistakes are dedicating their lives to improving patient safety for…
Hospital-borne ailments face Medicare budget ax | IndyStar.com Healthcare has LONG been a piecework industry. Caregivers and facilities are paid for WHAT they do and the services they provide. Doing more work gets you paid more, much the same way…
Here’s a mini Lean carnival of some good posts from other blogs about Lean: Got Boondoggle? Lost in Translation Great story from Mike about someone going to the “Gumbo” (plus one other Lean buzzword butchered, funny stuff). Good lesson about…
In Bid for Better Care, Surgery With a Warranty – New York Times This outstanding NY Times article isn’t about “Lean” per se (they don’t call it out by name), but you can definitely see elements of Lean Thinking abound.…
Portrait of an ER at the Breaking Point – Newsweek Health Here is an incredibly sad case study of an Emergency Room that’s a mess… as well as the hospital it is attached to. It’s overly simplistic to say “the…
