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.
As I blogged about last month, “Lean Coffee” is becoming a quarterly event for healthcare professionals here in San Antonio. We held a two-hour discussion this morning, with students, leaders, and Lean practitioners from a university MHA program and some…
I was recently interviewed by one of the reporters who put together this web article in Canada: “From the factory floor to the emergency department: Hospitals explore Lean method” The article highlights Lean success stories and it also raises some…
Two pet peeves of mine are hearing people say things like “Lean is all about reducing waste” and or “Lean is all about cost cutting” (and thankfully others are also trying to dispel that myth). Another pet peeve is people…
I often get asked, “How did you get into healthcare?” I was working on a chapter for a Lean healthcare compilation book that’s being published in Holland and I wrote the following material that wasn’t the right fit for that…
Here’s an article that summarizes the pocket of Lean healthcare activity in and around Winona and LaCrosse, Minnesota: “Waste reduction: Area health systems embrace lean practice“ One hospital mentioned is Winona Health. You can listen to my earlier podcast with…
I was recently interviewed for the Healthcare Tech Talk podcast, talking about Lean healthcare, Kaizen, and how IT professionals can get involved in these pursuits within a hospital or health system. I appreciate them having me on their show. My…
I wrote about Kaizen the other day on LinkedIn and the first comment was from Dr. Leke Agbejule, BPharm, MSc, PharmD, from South Florida: Very well said. As a Lean Six Sigma practitioner I live & consult by the “Kaizen” philosophy. I like…
tl;dr: Red-green charts push leaders to react to every up and down, turning normal variation into false drama. Process behavior charts provide the context needed to see signal vs. noise–so leaders improve the system instead of chasing each data point.…
Monday is Labor Day, a holiday here in the United States. Some nursing unions support Lean in healthcare, while others are in opposition. My stance is been that the unions should love Lean (since it improves the workplace for their members),…
There are certainly many serious problems in healthcare. Let’s look at nursing, in particular. It’s a rewarding job, but it’s far more frustrating for nurses than it needs to be. Nurses often don’t have enough time in the day (or…
People often talk about the need for senior leadership support for Lean. If we’re going to really transform our culture, workplace, and performance, “quality starts in the boardroom,” as Dr. Deming said. Lean is not about “fixing” the employees —…
There have been plenty of headlines and updates since I first blogged about the controversy over Lean healthcare in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan (see my previous posts here). From my outside perspective, there are some good things happening. I…