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PBS presents a very nice overview of the heath care systems in Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland in: Sick Around the World. It is a just a surface view of the overall system but even so does a good job of providing more understanding of the options available to fix the failed system in the USA. The US system costs over 50% more than others and has worse outcome measures than the alternatives (and leaves many without any coverage). And while the alternatives are not perfect the defenders of the status quo make claims about the alternatives are not accurate.
Table combines data from my previous post, International Health Care System Performance, and the PBS website:
| Australia | Canada | Germany | Japan | Netherlands | New Zealand | Switzerland | Taiwan | UK | USA | |
| National health spending - Percent of GDP | 9.5% | 9.8% | 10.7% | 8.0% | 9.2% | 9.0% | 11.6% | 6.3% | 8.3% | 16.0% |
| Percent uninsured | 0 | 0 | <1 | <2 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
Switzerland, spending 11.6% of GDP on health care, is the 2nd most expensive in the world.
Related: USA Spent $2.1 Trillion on Health Care in 2006 - Measuring the Health of Nations (USA ranks 19th of 19 nations studied) - Drug Prices in the USA - USA Health Care Costs 16% of GDP (2006) - Deadly Diseases of Western Management - 5 Million Lives Campaign
Lean manufacturing saving jobs
“This is not about a reduction in the workforce, it is about reducing waste in the system,” Cook said. “There is a lot to be gained . . . and it is really just common sense.” The lean manufacturing session got its start in November at a mayor’s roundtable on advanced manufacturing. When the issue of cutting waste arose, Cook volunteered to lead a session and the London Economic Development Corp. organized it.
“This information is not proprietary. If these people take it back to their plants and expand on it, we all gain,” Cook said.
A number of great points, including:
the best management ideas are not proprietary - Management Improvement - Management Advice Failures - Open Source Management Ideas
Related: Manufacturing Jobs - Lean Thinking Misconception - Lean Manufacturing Resources
Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis
Rankings: 1) France 2) Japan 3) Australia 4) Spain 5) Italy 6) Canada… 18) Portugal 19) USA. Maybe the United States is last but still not significantly behind?
It might seem like a stretch to compare the lowest ranked country to the average of the top 3, but, for all those that feel the USA is the best health care system it raises the questions of why they don’t think 100,000 annual deaths is a significant enough problem to lower their opinion of the current system. And remember the USA system costs something like twice as much as the average system: up to 16% of GNP in 2006.
I must say I would rather have the Toyota mindset shown by those talking about the USA health system instead of the claims of how the current USA health system is number 1. In Toyota’s horrible last year they still had a profit of about $14 billion (I believe something like 20 companies have every made that much). The United States health system sure has some things to point to positively but the system seems to be losing ground to the rest of the world more and more quickly while many cling to a belief it is the best system around.
Related: Evidence-based Management - posts on improving health care - Improving Hospital Performance - articles on improvement health care - Best Research University Rankings - Top 10 Manufacturing Countries - Dr. Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases of Western Management
I have very few details on this opportunity. All I know is what this Deming Electronic Network message says.
24-hour Lean Master Class with Jeffrey Liker
Start: October 10, 2006 5 PM
End: October 11, 2006 5 PM
London, United Kingdom
Rubicon Associates and The Deming Forum are delighted to present a Master Class with Jeffrey Liker. Prof. Liker is a world expert on the culture and methods behind the phenomenal success of Toyota and is offering an in depth view through this unique window.
(more…)
My design for better manufacturing in UK by James Dyson:
He at least partially gets the idea. I think he could benefit from studying and exploring the Toyota Production System - perhaps he could attend the seminars by Toyota UK. Still he is encouraging some of the right stuff, and the innovative engineering school he is half funding seems like a very good idea.
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Country to follow the hospital’s ‘lean’ lead by Jane Lavender:
The article also says “Nine months ago the hospital became one of only six in the world” which I don’t think is accurate. I think far more have been applying lean thinking for quite some time. Still this article is another example of the “buzz” around lean thinking.
Posts on lean thinking and lean manufacturing
Posts on improving the heath care system
Guests can choose from three workshops, HRM, Visual Control or Practical Problem Solving, and take part in a Q&A session with the speakers: Hein Van Gerwen, Managing Director; Carl Klemm, Deputy Managing Director; Clive Bridge, Corporate Affairs Director and Richard Humbert, Quality Assurance General Manager, all from Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK).
The event is free. Donations of £1,000 to the NSPCC are recommended.
Looks like a great opportunity.
via: Evolving Excellence
A presentation today, Lean Thinking For the NHS, by Dan Jones is getting press coverage in England.NHS should embrace lean times:
What innovation means to Tesco by Sir Terry Leahy (Chief Executive of Tesco):
The man who would save Scottish industry by Terry Murden
The article offers few details but is another example of “lean” ideas being voiced in the popular media.
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BBC radio has an online podcast of a discussion of W. Edwards Deming’s ideas. As far as I can tell the program is available for downloading just for the next couple days (I am exploring if we can find a way to make the program available online permanently - if anyone has experience working with BBC and has some helpful info please let me know).
The program is “In Business” on BBC 4. Peter Day moderates the discussion with guests:
Norman Speirs
European Director, Management Wisdom
Hazel Cannon
Leader of the Deming Forum
Jane Seddon
Process Management International
Debbie Ray
Good Samaritan Hospital Dayton, Ohio
Myron Tribus
former professor MIT and Dartmouth Universities in America
David Wormald
Managing Director, Raflatac
Nick Baxter
Chief Executive and Founder of Cornerstone International
I definitely encourage those interested in Deming’s ideas to listen to the podcast. The discussion provides a good overview of the basic concepts (exploring why Deming’s ideas are not “that Quality stuff that we did years ago”), a short history of Deming ideas and the state of affairs now. It is not an advanced tutorial for those who have been working with these ideas and now what to know how to solve specific issues they have run across. For those interested in applying Deming’s ideas, as always, I suggest: The Leadership Handbook, Fourth Generation Management and the Improvement Guide (for more see: books to start with and the
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