This is going to seem like a political rant, but I promise this is mainly a post about Lean and healthcare, or at least it’s about dysfunctional parallels in both settings. It was said that President Ronald Reagan and Speaker…
We had an amazing first day at the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit here in Orlando. We have 260 Lean healthcare leaders, including about 30 physicians, from 7 countries represented and there’s a lot of sharing, learning, and inspiration occurring.…
I wanted to post a few updates about some efforts related to the Lean Enterprise Institute: WIHI audio session on lean healthcare today 4 PM with John Toussaint, Steve Spear, and Gary Kaplan The upcoming book “On the Mend“ Our…
The Winnipeg Free Press has an article about their local St. Boniface Hospital, a member of the LEI/ThedaCare network I’m involved with called the Healthcare Value Network. About 40 of us from different Network member organizations visited last Thursday and…
Due out in June is a book that I think will be an important one for the Lean Healthcare movement. That book is about the Lean journey of the Wisconsin health system ThedaCare. It’s called On the Mend: Transforming Healthcare…
Those who follow Lean healthcare know that Virginia Mason Medical Center, in Seattle, is one of the world’s leaders in improving care through Lean methods. They were featured last year on the CBS Evening News, for example. The LeanROI.org site,…
I will try to be careful with this topic, since I’m obviously not a doctor. Criticism of doctors gets thrown around pretty easily around many hospitals, too much so, I think. You sometimes hear blanket criticisms about doctors being difficult,…
I only watched a few minutes of Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda’s live testimony (thanks to online cable news streaming), but the first things I heard prompted me to Tweet about it and I’m following up with a quick post. You…
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.…
Today, I’m sharing a few links featuring the thoughts of John Toussaint, M.D., the CEO Emeritus of the ThedaCare health system in Wisconsin and current CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. John is a partner with the Lean…
For a number of reasons, I’ve decided to re-read my copy of one of the most influential books I’ve ever read: Out of the Crisis by the late, great Dr. W. Edwards Deming. In the light of Toyota’s recent quality…
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…
