Wednesday, September 5, 2007|
Another Lean Hospital Tale. Medical treatment takes 'lean' tack
Not only was waste reduced, such as the waste of employee walking, morale improved: What's more, morale improved as staff members felt they were making an impact on the company's performance and on patient satisfaction.On a related front (different hospital)... I can't blog directly about it too much, but I revisited an ongoing client of mine, it's been about a year since they started their Lean journey. The hospital department director relayed a story about an outside hospital consultant who came in -- it was the type of consultant who shares what things other hospitals do. The outside consultant was very impressed, asking "why am I here?" and commenting that the employees "all seemed very happy." It's not that people don't still have complaints or things they'd like to improve, but Lean wasn't the disaster that some people might have feared. It's very exciting to see their progress. As I'll write about in my book, we're doing this for the patients, the employees, and the hospitals. To quote the subtitle of the "Good News" DVD -- "everybody wins!" Subscribe via RSS | Lean Blog Main Page | Podcast | Message Board 2:26:39 PM Comment on this Item |
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Tories to exclude 'unhealthy' people from NHS - Health Insurance and Protection Magazine.
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Frequency is more important than duration, Part 1 If you could have a leader shadow a physician for 18 visits in one day, or 1 visit a week for 18 weeks, which would you recommend? Physicians acquire information on behalf of their patients to reduce uncertainty, which eases discomfort and promotes healing. We like predictability. All people need time to process new experiences, and when they spend a little bit of time out of their comfort zone to start with, they can expand it. I invited two of our organization’s leaders, from our Governance Services and Community Benefit Departments, to shadow our excellent family medicine physicians last week. They asked me, “How long should we plan on staying?” I said, “One patient visit (with proper consent from the patient) would be just great. Frequency is more important than duration.” So they came, and then split up and each spent time with one patient being cared for by one physician. I sat in on one individual’s debrief with the physician she shadowed and debriefed both afterward. I think both individuals really felt the impact of the experience. In the debrief with the physician, one observer told him very positive things about his ability to connect with patients that he did not notice in himself. Both told me things about their visits (sans any personal details about the patients) that I or any other physician would never be able to describe in words to them, while adding the important perspective that they have as leaders so connected to our member governance and community interactions. I then shadowed an additional family medicine physician myself for a few visits, and she was also terrific. When I completed my shadowing and thanked the other physicians for their time, each of them said a variant of, “I’m not sure how useful that was for you, but I hope it helped.” My truthful response was, “More than you know.” I hope the leaders I invited (and any leader) experienced learning 20 things in 20 minutes by being as close to the customer as possible. I hope they will feel comfortable coming back regularly. Even for just one patient visit. I hope the physicians and patients who volunteer their time know that they can teach 20 things in 20 minutes. I hope they’ll feel comfortable hosting other leaders regularly. Even for just one patient visit. If this experience becomes standard work, physicians can predict that organizational leaders will see the impact of the support they provide when they make decisions, and organizational leaders will be comfortable in seeing the impact as they work to improve the health system. - Ted Eytan [DailyKaizen]7:10:28 AM Comment on this Item |
