Tag Archives: health care system

Burning Toast: American Health System Style

Posted on October 4, 2016 by John Hunter

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 →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Management, Public Sector | Tagged blame, Economics, global, government, health care system, organization as a system | Comments Off

Visual Management and Mistake-Proofing for Prescription Pills

Posted on May 5, 2015 by John Hunter

Good ideas often just require some sensible thought to think of an improved approach. Management concepts can help guide such thinking, such as mistake-proofing and visual management. To apply visual management requires giving a bit of thought to how to … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged curiouscat, Customer focus, design, Health care, health care system, management concepts, management system, management tools, mistake-proofing, Process improvement, process thinking, Quality tools, user experience, visual management | 4 Comments

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

Posted on January 19, 2012 by John Hunter

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 →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Systems thinking | Tagged business, economic data, Economics, economy, Health care, health care system, USA | 2 Comments

More Reasons to Avoid Layoffs

Posted on February 11, 2010 by John Hunter

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 Deming, health care system, layoffs, Lean thinking, Management Articles, managing people, Psychology, respect for people | 1 Comment

Systemic Health Care Failure: Small Business Coverage

Posted on December 27, 2009 by John Hunter

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 Economics, health care system | 2 Comments

Blame the Road – Not the Person

Posted on August 19, 2009 by John Hunter

The system is responsible for 90, 92, 94, 97% of problems – W. Edwards Deming. Fix the system, don’t blame the people. When you seek system fixes you approach situations differently than if you search for people to blame. By … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Deming, Economics, Health care, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged Creativity, Deming, Economics, Health care, health care system, Innovation, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

Community Medical Care Successes

Posted on June 18, 2009 by John Hunter

The Cost Conundrum by Atul Gawande, New Yorker (The Power of a Checklist was published there in 2007 by the same author) For example, Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic dominates the scene, has fantastically high levels of technological capability … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Economics, Health care, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, Health care, health care system, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

CEOs Want Health-Care Reform

Posted on May 28, 2009 by John Hunter

Decades ago Dr. Deming emphasized the deadly disease of excessive health care costs in the USA. Since then, year after year, the situation has become worse (reaching $2.2 trillion in spending in 2007 – 16.2% of GDP). During that time … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Health care | Tagged Deming, Economics, government, Health care, health care system, leadership | 6 Comments

ER Checklist

Posted on March 13, 2009 by John Hunter

The popular ER TV show highlighted the importance of using checklists in surgery yesterday. Such powerful quality tools, like the checklist, are just waiting to be used. But far too many fail to use these simple improvement tools. And in … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Quality tools, webcast | Tagged Health care, health care system, lean healthcare, Quality tools, webcast | 1 Comment

Applying Disruptive Thinking to the Healthcare Crisis

Posted on February 19, 2009 by John Hunter

Update: Sadly MIT delete the video. It is a shame educational institutions lose interest in knowledge just a couple years later. Thankfully we didn’t have to rely on the people deleting web content at universities to keep all the historical … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Innovation, Management, Management Articles, webcast | Tagged Clayton Christensen, disruptive innovation, Health care, health care system, Innovation, webcast | 3 Comments