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.
Mistake-proofing vs. warning signs is not a close contest. Signs rely on people paying attention in the moment. Mistake-proofing removes the chance to fail in the first place. My friend Chad Walters has contributed guest posts to my blog (and…
Hosted by Steve Hoeft, author of the book Stories from My Sensei: Two Decades of Lessons Learned Implementing Toyota-Style Systems, I had a chance to visit Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas. With his permission (but without editorial review),…
This video was uploaded to YouTube in the middle of 2012, but I just got tipped off to it. It’s an 11-minute video from Nemours, a children’s health care system. Watching this video that provides an overview of their improvement…
A woman has the wrong side of her brain operated on. The headline features the hospital’s name and the surgeon’s name. It seems the “name, blame, and shame” process has begun. SSM Health Care St. Louis, Dr. Armond Levy face…
This week, May 6-13, is National Nurses Week. It’s always important, but it’s especially good to thank and recognize all of the talented, caring, hard working nurses out there. Nursing is important, difficult work. Sadly, the work is made more…
I first held a public registration workshop based on the book “Healthcare Kaizen” in Denver last month. I’m going to repeat the workshop in the Dallas / Fort Worth area on the afternoon of June 25. Of course, being a…
Listen My guest for podcast #173 is Alan Gleghorn, CEO of Christie Clinic in central Illinois. Alan is one of the keynote presenters at the upcoming Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, to be held June 5-6, 2013 in Orlando. Alan has…
I had a chance to attend the Lean Kanban North America conference this week. It was a different “tribe” to be a part of, as the topics focused on software and IT settings, including agile development, “kanban” project management, and…
There’s an excellent blog post on the Virginia Mason Medical Center site: “Does respecting co-workers make patients safer?“ As a leader in adopting and adapting Toyota management methods to healthcare, Virginia Mason understands that “respect for people” is a core…
“Approximately 8 to 10% of the individuals who walk through our doors are being hurt by us,” says David Musyj, CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital. That’s one of the first things you hear in this CBC program “Rate My Hospital,”…
Here’s the latest in my “What I’m Reading” series, where I clear out some of the inventory of articles I’ve read, but haven’t blogged about. NY crime lab improves efficiency with ‘Lean Six Sigma’ process It’s great to see Lean…
A new tower opened at Seattle Children’s Hospital two days ago, built with “Lean Design” principles and methods, as this story describes: Hospital design started with yarn, cardboard and duct tape. They call their approach IFD, or Integrated Facility Design.…