Tag: Healthcare

Dr. Gary Kaplan is the CEO of Seattle's Virginia Mason Medical Center, considered one of the world leaders in the adoption of Lean healthcare...

Each Saturday, I get an email newsletter from the UK-based site "Nursing Times." Last week, this article, caught my eye: "Workplace principles revealed for NHS staff in Wales." A free registration might be required to read it or other articles, but it's worth it.

Episode #242 is unique in that it's a collection of audio clips from videos that Joe Swartz and I shot in late 2014 at...

In the videos, you’ll see staff and leaders talk bout “Kaizen” or continuous improvement. It’s powerful to see the impact that a “culture of continuous improvement” has on people and their lives.

In my time working with hospitals, I've always been very sympathetic to front-line nurses (and other staff). They are far too often overburdened and...

A few weeks back, a number of you sent me this article from the New York Times: "Doctors Unionize to Resist the Medical Machine" The article...

In addition to my blogging here, I write occasionally for our blog over at KaiNexus.com, where we have multiple contributors. I also do monthly webinars and the...

I wrote a new piece for LinkedIn that I hope would be of interest to you even if you’re in healthcare. Why? It’s a story about what an organization does when you don’t have enough (or any) direct work for your front-line staff to do. Toyota would continue paying employees and would put them to...

If you follow the auto industry, you might have seen headlines this week about how Toyota is being forced to shut down production in...

I get asked a lot, “How do you know if a hospital is truly ‘Lean?'” Nobody is ever perfect or “fully Lean,” but you could ask, “How do you know if somebody is on a legitimate Lean transformation journey?” If you could only ask one question...

Alternate title: “Lean is an Integrated System. Of Course Just Implementing Pieces Leads to Failure.” Throughout the 10 years that I’ve been involved with Lean healthcare efforts, I’ve heard multiple stories of organizations that ended their formal Lean initiatives. They do so, as I’ve been told, because they need to cut costs...

Mark's Note: Today's post is an excerpt, used with permission, from a new book by Steven Leuschel titled "Lean Culture Change," with an introduction...