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.
Don’t forget my reader survey – share your feedback and have a chance at some great prizes. In November, I blogged about a panel at the Lab Quality Confab that included Dr. Richard Zarbo from Henry Ford Health System (see…
Last year, the Institute of Medicine released its latest report titled, “Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America.” The report endorsed Lean as one strategy for improving the problems in our health care…
My guest for episode #163 is Dr. Gregory R. Johnson, the Chief Medical Officer at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In this episode, we talk about how Parkview is using Lean to cope with today’s challenging environment, how Dr.…
Back in 2007, I published a post about the disparity in pricing for blue plastic bins that are often used for Lean “5S” practices or just for general shelf storage. In 2007, the SAME plastic bin was $4.55 in the…
As he mentioned on his blog, John Toussaint has co-authored a piece that was published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings: “The Promise of Lean in Health Care” (PDF). John is excited that the article will be read by many physicians,…
Thanks to ASQ for posting an audio interview they did with me last month about my book (with Joe Swartz), Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements. Listen to the interview (MP3 file – 14 minutes) ASQ also…
Thanks to 24×7 Mag for publishing my piece, targeted a bit toward hospital biomed departments, but I think there’s general applicability: Article link: “To Fix Health Care, We Need More “Kaizen” Health care professionals have plenty of ideas for improvement…
Listen My guest for podcast #160 is Joseph S. Guarisco, M.D., FAAEM, FACEP. Dr. Guarisco is currently Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine and System Chief of Emergency Services for the Ochsner Health System. Dr. Guarisco is a keynote…
Last week, the New York Times published a piece called “Don’t Just Talk About Change. Show It,” written by Mick Wilz, an employee at Sur-Seal, a family-owned business in Cincinnati. As part of a Lean initiative (as evidenced by their…
On Friday, I had a great opportunity to teach a class of healthcare professionals at the Master of Business Operational Excellence (MBOE) program at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. I saw some of their capstone project presentations and…
Note: Not sure why my blog plugin thinks the links are bad (crossed out), but they work if you click on them: Back in June, I was interviewed on Robbin Block‘s small business show (“Minding Your Business“) that appears online…
Kevin, from BC, shared this video with me about Lean healthcare. It’s only 2.5 minutes long and it has a fun visual style. I’ll give it +1 for focusing on improving being driven by the people who do the work.…