Lean as a Learning System
lean as a learning system hospital ward – Google Search I hope those of you reading won’t consider this to be a “healthcare only” paper. It’s written by Michael Balle, who you might recognize as the co-author of The Gold…
Tag Healthcare
Healthcare Improvement Through Lean, Leadership, and Learning
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.
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Summary: Remaking American Medicine
Andrew Castle, a lean healthcare consultant in the UK, generously offered up this summary of the 4-part PBS documentary series. It’s a long summary, so I’ll just post the start of it here. Direct pdf file download Buy the series…
LAME: Lean is Not Automation
Here’s another example of what you might call “L.A.M.E” (“Lean” As Misguidedly Executed) instead of “Lean.” I received a disturbing report in my email inbox two weeks ago, a report that tries to co-opt Lean and the Toyota Production System…
BBC Radio Program on Lean Hospitals
BBC – Radio 4 – In Business COMING MID 2008, A NEW BOOK ON LEAN HEALTHCARE – “Lean Hospitals: Improving Patient Safety, Quality, and Employee Satisfaction,” by Mark Graban Here is a nice program from the BBC, can listen in…
Lean and MD’s, Defining "Value"
DailyKaizen » What the patient is willing to pay for How about this for a circular (almost) network of blogs? I’m linking to a post on the excellent “Daily Kaizen” lean healthcare blog, which was referencing a post on the…
How Toyota Can Save Your Life… At the Hospital
ChangeThis :: How Toyota Can Save Your Life…At the Hospital The page linked to above (link now dead) has an essay I was invited to write about the healthcare and the Toyota Production System, for the website “ChangeThis.” A direct…
Old Gilbreth Studies in Health Care
The following comes from Jeff, a Lean Blog reader from Vermont: ———————————— Love the blog…I look/read every day. Keep up the good work! You may have seen this already, but here is a link to the original films of Frank…
Creativity before Capital
Want to stop disease from spreading? Open a window – Yahoo! News What works best for stopping the spread of disease in a hospital? Negative pressure rooms (expensive, hard to maintain) Opening windows (cheap!) The low-tech solution could help prevent…
What you Learn by Just Observing
Recently, I spent a few days doing some current state assessment work with a healthcare billing environment. I spent my time shadowing employees, observing the process, looking for waste, and asking them about problems they face in the course of…
Does the Solo Doc = "Lean" Doc?
WSJ Article: Faltering Family M.D.s Get Technology Lifeline While I was skeptical of Intel’s planned tablet PC for nurses, I’m much more positive in my first reaction to this WSJ article about small (or single MD) physician practices using technology…
UK Hospitals Gemba Walk the U.S.
I was sent a nice “gemba report” essay from a UK lean healthcare consultant, Andrew Castle. Andrew consults for the UK National Health Service and came with a group to tour two American sites: Toyota Industrial Equipment (forktruck manufacturing in…
Great Find on an Early Lean Hospital
Got Boondoggle?: The First Lean Hospital Mike Wroblewski deserves a lot of credit for digging this up…. early attempt at a lean hospital in a surprising place and time (or maybe NOT surprising, once you know “the rest of the…
