ThedaCare has long been regarded as one of the most influential examples of Lean thinking in healthcare. These posts explore what ThedaCare’s journey actually teaches leaders—about management systems, executive commitment, strategy deployment, culture change, and the fragility of improvement when leadership changes.
Rather than treating Lean as a set of tools or success stories frozen in time, this archive examines real lessons, missteps, evolution, and leadership reflections from ThedaCare and others who have studied or worked with the organization.
I had the opportunity to finally meet “e-Patient Dave” at the HIMSS conference about 10 days ago, where he spoke on the topic of patient involvement and the patient’s right to their own medical data. As he describes on his…
Last Friday at SHS/ASQ, I heard a talk by Michael Riordan, the CEO of the Greenville Hospital System in South Carolina. He is one of what must be a very small number of Industrial Engineers who made it to the…
TL;DR: Standardized work, influenced by Toyota and Dr. Atul Gawande, is crucial for improving safety, quality, and efficiency in healthcare. It should be created by those who do the work, be flexible, and serve as a basis for continuous improvement.…
Continuing my series on re-reading Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s book Out of the Crisis, I’m posting a series of tweets from the Chapter along with my thoughts and comments. At about 70 pages, it’s a long, dense chapter, including Deming’s…
One project I’m involved with at the LEI is an online video education event on the topic of “strategy deployment,” confusing known also as “hoshin kanri” or “hoshin planning” or “policy deployment.” I know, let’s pick a name already. This…
Today’s post is an email written by Patrick M. Anderson, Executive Director of Chugachmiut, Inc., the Tribal consortium created to promote self-determination to the seven Native communities of the Chugach Region in Alaska. You might recall my two podcasts with…
Update (1/7/10): Turns out the TSA agent walked away from his post. I’d certainly hold someone accountable for that, since it was a conscious choice, unless there were VERY extenuating circumstances. After seeing the news on CNN last night (video…
Today was an exciting day at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement‘s 21st annual National Forum on Healthcare Quality Improvement. It’s my first time here, to learn and network. They have over 5,000 attendees who are committed to quality and patient…
Keen to Be Lean – CFO Magazine – December 2009 Issue – CFO.com I’ll share the above link with a little commentary, for now, a nice overview of Lean Healthcare for CFO Magazine. I helped the writer with research and…
We had some local Boston news about hospitals reducing infection rates, including dangerous blood stream infections that result from central lines. Several academic medical centers in Boston said the number of ICU patients contracting bloodstream infections had dropped by at…
If Health Care Is Going to Change, Dr. Brent James’s Ideas Will Change It – NYTimes.com About 10 people sent me this article via the blog or Twitter, so thanks for that. Don’t worry about duplication if you see stuff…
Womack and Jones video on spread – Blog – ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value From John Toussaint’s blog, this video starts with a question about (I’m paraphrasing) how do you balance continuous innovation (in how “Lean” works in a hospital)…