By Dean Bliss: One of the big challenges we have as Lean people is to get beyond presentations, classes, and posters, and get to the real work done by the real workers. At our hospital system, we’re learning a technique…
So I’m finally watching the DVR-ed episode from March 10, 2009, that gave widespread exposure to the issue of medical mistakes. Oprah began the show by citing the statistic that errors cause more deaths than “breast cancer, AIDS, and car…
I’ve struck a chord with a few nurses with this post from late last year: Why Do Hospitals Have to Rely on Vigilant Patients and Families? I asked: I’ve written before about my questions of why so many hospitals abdicate…
Amid nurse shortage, hospitals focus on retention I’ve heard a similar theme before — the problem isn’t that we need to graduate more nurses, we need to just quit losing so many from the field. Newly minted nurse Katie O’Bryan…
Kevin Meyer, over at Evolving Excellence, recently wrote a good piece on “endorsing” a U.S. presidential candidate. Today, I’m technically Constitution-eligible to be President of the United States, as I’m now 35 years young. However, I’m not nominating myself to…
Slowdown’s Side Effect: More Nurses – WSJ.com: Not a Lean article, but a major issue for hospitals is a shortage of nurses. With the economy in its current condition, more nurses are returning to work. There’s still a need for…
reportonbusiness.com: Asking ‘why’ again and again is harder than you think, but it works It’s kind of neat to see a column about the “5 whys” method in a general business publication (link above). The consultant and professor in the…
Nurse + Blog = PixelRN: 16% of the US economy runs on scrawly, handwritten notes. PixelRN is a blog written by a nurse (who is unfortunately considering leaving the field). She writes about the problems involved with handwritten orders, charts,…
Hospital’s shake-up gives nurses more time Here’s a nice news article about the use of Lean in a hospital in New Zealand (hat tip to Michael for sending it to me). Middlemore Hospital is the first in the country to…
Care and Chaos on the Night Nursing Shift – WSJ.com Free Version via CareerJournal.com The linked article is a virtual “gemba walk” for those of you who have asked how and why Lean is helpful and necessary in a hospital…
I read Paul Levy’s blog every chance I get. He is the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Although fellow blogger Kevin Meyer and I caused a bit of a kerfuffle with him, unfortunately, earlier this year…
Dennis Quaid’s newborns reportedly harmed by medical mix-up – Los Angeles Times (Updated 4:57 PM, again at 9:51 PM, see bottom of post) If this story sounds familiar, it’s because it is the exact same error as one that killed…
