Comments on: Going Lean in Health Care

By: kokoras

kokoras — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:27:42 +0000

The February 7, 2007 edition of the Wall Street Journal described a local hospital’s efforts in regards to patient satisfaction. Briefly, the article stated that in 2004 the hospital had done a patient survey and had found that patients thought the staff offered poor service and that patients thought they were ill-informed about decisions and home care. The hospital’s response to this survey created some very positive results. The hospital formed a family and patient advisory council. Based upon the advice of the council several important changes were made. Visiting hours were eliminated. Staff worked with patients and staff to decide who would make medical decisions. Waiting times were shortened. Staff called home after patient discharge to make sure that instructions were clear and being followed. These improvements along with others led from a patient ranking in the lower third nationally to the 64th percentile. More improvements are surely coming and along with those a higher ranking.

Regards

By: CuriousCat: ThedaCare: Lean Healthcare

CuriousCat: ThedaCare: Lean Healthcare — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:20:42 +0000

“In 2005, ThedaCare was able to save $10 million thanks to its lean programs and officials hope to save another $12 million this year, Toussaint said…”

By: CuriousCat: Lean Health Care: ThedaCare

CuriousCat: Lean Health Care: ThedaCare — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:40:13 +0000

“Each week, ThedaCare has several rapid improvement events or RIEs. During that process, people from both in and out of the area affected look at an issue – for example the daily step pattern of medical surgical technician – and find ways to cut out the waste…”

By: CuriousCat: Lean Dentist Podcast

CuriousCat: Lean Dentist Podcast — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 03:30:56 +0000

The podcast offers a wonderful example of how to apply lean ideas (I really appreciate how obvious the focus on learning and thinking has been key to becoming a lean organization). Dr. Bahri does a great job of explaining how he learned and applied lean thinking with a big focus on one patient flow…

By: Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Management Improvement History and Health Care

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:16:42 +0000

[...] Squeezing the fat from health care by Hanah Cho is another article on lean healthcare. This one provides a better view of the overall picture – especially compared to all those claiming to be one of the first lean thinking effort in healthcare. A good sign was that the author referenced, Going Lean in Health Care, a great report by IHI (James Womack and others). [...]

By: CuriousCat: Univ Michigan Hospital Adopts Toyota Methods

CuriousCat: Univ Michigan Hospital Adopts Toyota Methods — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 05:27:11 +0000

Then read the the many available resources to learn about one-piece flow, poka-yoke, eliminating waste, identifying errors, kaizen… rather than relying on this article.