Dean Gruner, M.D., president and CEO of ThedaCare, tells the LeanBlog podcaster Mark Graban how the Wisconsin healthcare system is using Accountable Care Organizations with Lean methods to improve the coordination of care for patients.

The Nightly Business Report did a freature Oct. 14, 2011 on the appplication of lean concepts at Good Samaritan Hospital, Downer’s Grove, IL, to speed response in cardiac care and improve patient outcomes. The lean effort is besing applied hospitalwide now.

You can read the transcript here: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/lean_clean_hospitals_111014/

Or click to watch the video. It begins about 14:50 into the show

The Voice of America, in an audio report and text article, highlights the work of Virginia Mason Medical Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Dr. Gary Kaplan, head of Virginia Mason Hospital in 2001, thought he could adapt Toyota’s lean management style - which focuses on eliminating waste in the production process - to improve healthcare.

"He turned to the Toyota production system because it was clear to him that taking these principles and tools and adapting them to healthcare could significantly make Virginia Mason a more efficient operation," says efficiency expert Charles Kenney, author of "Transforming Healthcare, Virginia Mason Medical Center’s Pursuit of the Perfect Patient Experience."

Mary Kingston, Vice President for Performance Improvement at St. Joseph’s Hospital, talks about the first three years of the lean journey at St. Joseph's in California. She is interviewed (available in audio and text format) by the Association for Manufacturing Excellence in advance of their November conference, where St. Joseph's will be presenting.

From the interview:

"One of the things I thought was really intriguing was the whole idea of capturing knowledge which I really hadn't thought about. We use A3 Thinking and our last box is called insights. What I've learned through this conference is that we've been very superficial about looking at those insights and we really want to look a level deeper: Like where are we failing? Why did we fail? How can we understand how to prevent that from happening again? And I think sometimes we look at the insights a little too superficially. So that deeper dialogue is what I'm taking away."

St. Joseph's is a member of the Healthcare Value Leaders Network.

Mark Graban, Director of Communication & Technology for the Healthcare Value Leaders Network, talks with host Steve Wilson about the Network and how members engage and interact, particularly around the formal on-site "Gemba Visits" that are facilitated by the Network.

Listen to the show:

 

John Toussaint, MD, author of the book On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry, was on "The Lean Nation" radio show with "Captain Karl" Wadensten talking about Lean Healthcare.

The link below contains an audio interview with John Toussaint, MD, co-author of the LEI book "On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry."

The first Q&A:

Q I realize that it's a few months off yet, and you probably haven't finalized your remarks, but what are some of the challenges that you intend to address in your keynote speech in Baltimore? Some of the messages you're taking with you?

A I think that this is about leadership behavior. The tools are the tools, the tools are important, you've got to learn the tools, but you can learn the tools. The hard part is the people part. What does a lean leader look like? That's what I'll be focussing on, what it takes to be an effective lean leader. It means, pretty much, that you have to change everything that you've learned in business school, or medical school, or nursing school, and you have to pretty much retool yourself, because our existing education system is turning out autocratic control freaks who manage by the numbers, and they don't know anything about quality improvement, and they don't know how to manage a group of people to actually achieve 100% reliable results. If we don't change ourselves as leaders, we will never be able to transform our companies.

In a podcast produced by Johns Hopkins, Dr. Erich Aldrich, Chair of the Quality Improvement Committee for Neurology discusses the importance of using Lean Sigma, a novel business approach, provided by The Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care at Johns Hopkins Medicine. For the MP3 file, click the link below...

This is a follow-up interview with Eric Ries, the presenter at the webinarLessons Learned by Lean Start-Ups.