My Interview in Healthcare Construction + Operations News

Q&A Nov/Dec 2008 - Trimming the
Fat

I was featured in Healthcare
Construction + Operations News in a recent issue where we
talked about my book and Lean in healthcare.

You can read the whole thing for free, here is one Q &
A:

Q: Do you see a lot of frustration, and
where does lean fit with that?

A: In hospitals, you find employees who are
frustrated for different reasons and lean is brought in as a way of
addressing that. Very often, because people in healthcare care so
much and work so hard, a lot of their effort is spent fighting the
system and processes in the system in which they are working.

An example is when supplies, materials and medications are not
in the right place when they are needed. When you look at layout
and workplace design issues, people constantly have to walk back
and forth because of poor layout decisions. People get kind of worn
out with the accumulated frustration.

Lean allows people to come in and improve systems and processes
instead of just fighting the same fires everyday. Lean helps us get
to the root of the problems and put better systems in place.

Healthcare workers also complain that their managers won’t
listen to ideas that they have for making things better. A lot of
the focus of lean is based on teaching managers or supervisors to
start tapping into their employees’ ideas. Nurses, pharmacy
techs or patient care techs can be engaged to fix the system and to
get them past the point where they feel they are not being
heard.

Help spread the word about Lean in healthcare, whether you’re
inside the industry or outside. This really is a global movement.
My book is almost sold out through the Australia distributor at the
moment and I got a nice email from a blog reader who emailed the
Swedish health minister about Lean and my book. We really need Lean
in healthcare, whether you are an employee or a potential
patient.