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.
Continuing my series of blog posts about my July trip to China, today’s post is about my first significant walk through a hospital during the trip. My group had a chance to visit the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University.…
My guest for Episode #262 is Steven J. Spear (@stevenjspear on Twitter). He is author of the fantastic book The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition. He’s a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School…
Normally, in my original Lean podcast series, I’m interviewing others and I let them do most of the talking (I believe this is statistically true). OK, well, I have another podcast series (Lean Blog Audio) where I read blog posts…
I’m excited to announce that I’m presenting a webinar at no cost to you on September 22nd, sponsored by Cardinal Health and hosted by FierceHealthcare.com: Creating a New “Gold Standard” – Healthcare Supply Chain Best Practices from Other Industries Update:…
Today is the Labor Day holiday in the United States (and in Canada, as I recently learned). It’s not just a day of rest or a celebration of people who work… it’s a also day to acknowledge unions and the…
You might remember the hubbub (a kerfuffle?) over the NEJM opinion piece written by Dr. Jerome Groopman and Dr. Pamela Hartzband. See my first post about their article. There are more links at the bottom of this post Now, the “Perspective”…
A number of you emailed me about this report in the Detroit News. I grew up in Detroit and my first job was as a carrier for the News. Loved ones have received care from the Detroit Medical Center system……
The cancelation of a meaningless NFL exhibition pre-season game is probably one of the least important problems in the world. But, it happened recently and the “comedy errors” is interesting to think about. You might notice the headline of my…
My guest for Episode #260 of the podcast is Brad White, author of the recently-released book Lean Daily Management for Healthcare: A Strategic Guide to Implementing Lean for Hospital Leaders. He is currently a Senior Process Improvement Advisor at Grady Health System…
It’s one thing to hear Lean professionals or specialists talking about the power of this methodology to improve healthcare. To me, it’s not just theory, it’s something I’ve seen in practice. Sure, there are many engineers and former business people working in…
This article caught my eye at Becker’s Hospital Review: We asked 13 physicians what they really think of their hospital Even though organizations do formal physician and staff satisfaction surveys, the questions posed here is one that we should ask people frequently…
I want to preface this post by saying it’s mostly about questions, not answers. I’ve had many readers and acquaintances ask me about what’s been going on at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. The short answer is: “I don’t…
