Lean Hospitals is about improving patient care, staff well-being, safety, and flow by fixing systems—not blaming people or cutting costs at any price. These posts explore Lean healthcare as a management and leadership system grounded in respect for people, psychological safety, and continuous learning.
Drawing from hospitals, health systems, and frontline clinical work, this archive reflects the core ideas from Lean Hospitals: improvement without layoffs, learning from mistakes, daily problem solving, and leadership behaviors that make sustainable improvement possible in healthcare.
Yesterday was an exciting day for me, professionally and personally, as I received my first copies of the 3rd edition of my book Lean Hospitals (I’ll stop blogging about the book so much, I promise). This is the fifth time I’ve had…
As the 3rd edition of my book Lean Hospitals is starting to ship, I’m having some great conversations with people about the “State of Lean Healthcare” in 2016 (as much as one can generalize). Two of those conversations about the book…
I recently learned that a company called Anderson Continuing Education offers continuing education (CE) credits for nurses related to my book Lean Hospitals. See their page for my book. I am still trying to learn more, but they will sell the book…
In the previous editions of my book Lean Hospitals, I’ve included case examples from Avera McKennan Hospital and Avera Health. Fred Slunecka is the former president of Avera McKennan and he is now chief operating officer for the Avera system. I talked…
The revised, updated, and expanded third edition of my book Lean Hospitals has been sent to the printer and copies should start shipping by mid June. I’m happy to now be offering a free PDF of the revised first chapter. You…
There's a triangle diagram on the TSSC webpage that describes an "integrated system" that consists of: technical methods, managerial methods, philosophy.
All of this is "focused on people development," Jamie told me for the book.
The model starts with people and human development in the middle, as "people are the most valuable resource," says Bonini.
It's very frustrating when I hear people in healthcare complain that their hospital or health system has equated Lean with cost savings -- only focusing on cost reduction or primarily focusing on it...
Back in 2011, I asked for and received some great input from readers about updating a chapter for the second edition of my book Lean Hospitals on “A Vision for Lean Hospitals.” A lot has changed in the healthcare environment over four…
As I mentioned on Monday, I’m working on a 3rd revised edition of my book Lean Hospitals. Traditional book publishing is a funny (and sometimes frustrating) value stream, in a lot of ways. There are many batches and many queues along…
Launch anouncement: It’s been 20 years now since I graduated from college and started working with the Lean methodology. The first ten years of my career were focused on manufacturing. Then I had the happy detour into healthcare ten years…
Today’s post is being hosted by the Lean Enterprise Institute and their “Lean Post” blog… click on the headline below or the image to read: “Standardization is a Countermeasure, Never the Goal“ It’s a post that encourages people to “ask…
TL;DR: The phrase “you get what you expect and you deserve what you tolerate” appears to trace back to a 1970s Reader’s Digest article, brought into Lean and healthcare circles through Charlie Protzman’s seminars at Johnson & Johnson. I learned…
