Rethinking Lean in Healthcare

This book deals with a hospital's struggle to secure and maintain financial stability. In the story, the leadership team of a fictional hospital adopts the tools and principles associated with the Toyota Production System or Lean. The story takes the reader through leadership's arduous journey from rejecting the methodology to embracing it, to successful implementation. This book is important because many of our nation's hospitals are besieged with financial difficulties with declining reimbursement and the public is losing confidence in our hospital's ability to provide quality care without error. Lean can provide relief from these issues but only if it is properly implemented.

Tom Zidel is the president of Lean Hospitals, LLC, a consulting company, which provides consulting, facilitation and training exclusively to healthcare organizations. With more than 25 years experience in Lean and Six Sigma implementation, Tom has guided many organizations through their Lean journey. He has dedicated the last 15 years to working exclusively with healthcare organizations. He is the author of the bestselling book A Lean Guide to Transforming Healthcare: How to Implement Lean Principles in Hospitals, Medical Offices, Clinics and Other Healthcare Organizations . Tom has earned the prestigious Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award for his book Lean Done Right: Achieve and Maintain Reform in Your Healthcare Organization, which was also a 2012 Axiom Business Book Awards Silver medal winner, in the category of operations management. Tom has trained/or mentored hundreds of healthcare professionals from many of our nation's leading hospitals, including Yale New-Haven Health System, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Aurora Health Care, in the use of Lean and DMAIC methods. Tom Zidel is a pioneer in Lean implementation in healthcare. His presentations and workshops are stimulating, energetic and functional. His unique approach to Lean implementation allows organizations to sustain their lean initiative by creatiing a Lean culture and systems thinking.

Introduction. The Board Meeting. The Cement that Holds Everything Together. A Not So Restful Sunday. An Unwelcomed Suggestion. Identifying Waste. A Lean Experiment. Culture Change and Systems Thinking. Status Boards. The House of Lean. Applicable Stories. Creating the Plan. Some Results. The Board Meeting. No Time to Celebrate. Meet the New Lean Consultant. Kick-off Meetings. Training. Staff Overview. Rounding. A Year Later.