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.
I’ve never been a big fan of the TSA or any form of visual inspection. I wasn’t a fan, either, of the automated x-ray technology that was used in (and then removed from) American airports while being banned in Europe…
Joining me for Episode #169 is Leonard L. Berry, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Marketing in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. We are talking about his article that he co-authored with John Toussaint, MD Mayo Clinic Proceedings: “The…
I always get annoyed when people spread the false dichotomy of “Lean is about efficiency and Six Sigma is for quality.” Replace the word “efficiency” with “speed” or “flow” and it’s still wrong. Here is an example of this falsehood…
From today’s news: “Backup presidential limo on its way for Obama in Israel after fuel filling failure.” U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip to Israel was tripped up by a preventable error – the Presidential limousine was mistakenly filled with diesel fuel…
While Lean is not primarily a cost-cutting methodology (or, we could say it’s not focused ONLY on costs), cost reduction is a common end result of improving safety, quality, flow, and other factors. Since 60 to 70% of a hospital’s…
Today I’m linking to a guest post that I wrote for my friend Marc Rouppe van der Voort who works at St. Elisabeth Hospital (Tilburg, Netherlands) and has a blog in Dutch (with auto Google translation). Marc used to maintain a…
My guest for episode #168 is Carolyn McCulley, from CityGate Films, and she is a co-director and producer of the upcoming documentary called “Breaking the Wall of Silence,” which sheds light on patient safety challenges in healthcare — but more…
I saw some posters and presentations at the recent Society for Health Systems conference that include some nice examples of this approach from organizations including the Indianapolis VA, East Tennessee Children's Hospital, and Norwalk Hospital...
If we're doing trivial Lean projects without addressing patient harm or patient waiting times, we run the risk of "5S-ing the deck chairs on the Titanic"...
As a reminder, I am giving a free Gemba Academy webinar tomorrow (Tuesday 3/12) on “Stories about the Eight Types of Waste in Healthcare.” Click here to learn more and sign up. I’m going to tell some stories from my…
Producer Clare Crawford-Mason shares behind-the-scenes stories of W. Edwards Deming and the 1980 NBC documentary If Japan Can Do It, Why Can’t We?–and reflects on Deming’s lasting impact on management, healthcare, and leadership. Listen: My guest for episode #167 is…
It’s the annual National Patient Safety Awareness Week, just ending now. Here are my thoughts from last year, including my stance that EVERY week needs to be patient safety week. The problem is big enough that we need awareness increasing…
