Category Archives: Health care

Burning Toast: American Health System Style

Democrats and Republicans have created a health care system in the USA over the last 40 years that “burns toast” at an alarming rate. As the symptoms of their health care system are displayed they call in people to blame … Continue reading

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Decades Later The USA Health Care System is Still a Deadly Disease for Our Economy

Decades ago W. Edwards Deming named 7 deadly diseases of western management. One of those was excessive health care costs. Sadly that deadly disease has become much worse in the last several decades. Americans pay 300% more for this prostate … Continue reading

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The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance

My father had the most job satisfaction of anyone I have known. He had no separation between work and life. We toured factories on vacation. I visited Davidson College in North Carolina because he was consulting with a client in … Continue reading

Posted in Health care, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Some Thoughts on Investing from My Recent Interview

In the first few years of this blog I posted occasionally, but still much more than the last few years, on investing and economics. Now I mainly post on those topics on the Curious Cat Investing and Economics blog (see … Continue reading

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Management Blog Review 2012: Gemba Walkabout

This is my second, of two, 2012 management blog review posts. In this post I look back at the last year on Mike Stoecklein’s Gemba Walkabout blog. Mike is the Director of Network Operations at Thedacare Center for Healthcare Value. … Continue reading

Posted in Carnival, Deming, Health care, Process improvement | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Management Blog Review 2012: Not Running a Hospital

Paul Levy started the Running a Hospital blog when he was the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Thankfully he has continued the blog, renamed to Not Running a Hospital, after leaving that position. Paul provides a huge number … Continue reading

Posted in Health care, Management | Tagged , | 4 Comments

USA Spent $2.6 Trillion, $8,402 per person,17.9% of GDP on Medical Expenses in 2010

The federal government financed 29% of total health spending in 2010, a substantial increase from its share of 23% in 2007. Meanwhile, the shares of the total health care bill financed by state and local governments (16%), private businesses (21%), and households (28%) declined during the same time period. Continue reading

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More Reasons to Avoid Layoffs

Lay Off the Layoffs by Jeffrey Pfeffer As its former head of human resources once told me: “If people are your most important assets, why would you get rid of them?” … In fact, there is a growing body of … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Health care, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hospital Providing Better Health Care While Reducing Costs

Business Week has a good article on the strides one hospital has been able to make at reducing costs and improving quality. Hospitals: Radical Cost Surgery Walk into Providence Regional Medical Center, in Everett, Wash., and you will see a … Continue reading

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Systemic Health Care Failure: Small Business Coverage

There are many significant problems with the medical care system in the USA. It makes sense that a system that costs over 50% more than other countries and has no better outcomes, from all that extra spending, suffers from many … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Health care, Innovation, Systems thinking | Tagged , | 2 Comments