Patient safety doesn’t improve through punishment, vigilance posters, or telling people to “be more careful.” It improves when leaders design safer systems, support speaking up, and focus on learning instead of blame. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on patient safety through a Lean lens—exploring medical errors, near misses, psychological safety, leadership behaviors, and how healthcare organizations can reduce harm by fixing systems rather than blaming individuals.
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…
“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…
Here’s a video interview with Dr. Peter Pronovost, author of the book Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals: How One Doctor’s Checklist Can Help Us Change Health Care from the Inside Out, via AARP. It’s a brief synopsis of the patient safety…
I was fortunate to have three interviews published in the past week, where I was talking about Lean Healthcare and Kaizen, so I thought I’d share them here. Cutting Waste is More Important Than Ever: An Interview with Lean Healthcare…
In recent years, there’s been a movement away from having first-year residents work such long grueling hours – 24 hour shifts or longer, multiple days in a row on call, etc. The idea was that fatigued residents were making poor…
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…
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…
It’s time again for a regular feature I call “Stuff I’m Reading.” I have too many browser tabs open and my Mac is bogging down (root cause of this?), so it’s time to share some links that I may or…
I recently saw this headline in the London Evening Standard: “Nurses struggle to ‘get the job done’ due to staff shortages and lack of time on 12 hour shifts.” The article starts with jumping to solutions (needing/wanting more staff), but…
Many of you who took my reader survey (still open and feedback welcome, prizes gone) mentioned that you liked this style of post with links to stuff I’ve been reading. I am to please… Some links to web articles I…
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…
