Quality healthcare is a cornerstone of any healthy society. In the U.S., we have access to sophisticated medical technology, world renowned physicians, highly trained nurses and hospital personnel, advanced pharmaceuticals, and innovations in diagnosis and treatment. But for all of our sophistication, serious problems afflict healthcare systems across the U.S. today – problems that cause severe hardship for families in communities large and small. Considering its impact on society, healthcare is arguably our most important industry. Good health is a key aspect of a productive and fulfilling life no matter what a person’s age, cultural background, social status or career. To live well and provide for ourselves and others, we all depend on a strong healthcare system that can help us prevent illness and access effective treatment when we need it. Needless to say, building and maintaining that robust healthcare system is no easy task. According to a report by the Institute of Medicine, up to 98,000 deaths per year occur in U.S. hospitals as a result of adverse events. In other words, errors in hospitals cause more annual deaths than acceptable and are totally preventable. With the healthcare system in such critical condition, Lean is the best possible treatment as it moves to eliminate waste and improve processes. The revised edition of Taking Improvement from the Assembly Line to Healthcare supplies step-by-step guidance on how to implement Lean methods to achieve world-class improvement with the healthcare industry. The updated edition of this Shingo award winner book provides specific examples of Lean implementation in emergency medicine, diagnostic imaging, orthopedic clinics, general internal medicine, administration, and community care. Highlighting quality, safety, and financial evidence as to why immediate change is both possible and essential, the book provides a firm foundation in Lean improvement and the tools used to deliver sustainable solutions. This revised edition presents new and updated client interviews and how the process has changed or been enhanced, what worked and what didn’t work. New case studies from U.S. and Canada provide readers with the real-world understanding needed to embark and sustain a successful improvement journey.

According to a report by the Institute of Medicine, up to 98,000 deaths per year occur in U.S. hospitals as a result of adverse events. In other words, errors in hospitals cause more annual deaths than car accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. With the healthcare system in such critical condition, Lean is the best possible treatment. Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award! Taking Improvement from the Assembly Line to Healthcare: The Application of Lean within the Healthcare Industry supplies step-by-step guidance on how to implement Lean methods to achieve world-class improvement within the healthcare industry. Specific examples of this approach are provided in emergency medicine, diagnostic imaging, orthopedic clinics, general internal medicine, administration, and community care. Highlighting quality, safety, and financial evidence as to why immediate change is both possible and essential, the book provides a firm foundation in Lean improvement and the tools used to deliver sustainable solutions. It presents client interviews and case studies from the U.S. and Canada to provide readers with the real-world understanding needed to embark and sustain a successful improvement journey. With two decades of experience in industrial operations management, Ronald Bercaw details a proven approach for discovering waste and delivering improvement in healthcare organizations. He presents powerful insights gained through successful Lean implementations in private industry, U.S. and Canadian healthcare systems, U.S. Pentagon business systems, U.S. Surgeon General assignments, and U.S. Navy, Army, and Air Force maintenance applications. Providing a comprehensive view of improvement within and outside the walls of the hospital and clinic, the book reveals valuable lessons learned and mitigation strategies to increase your chances of success. It identifies and addresses the leadership challenges that are likely to emerge and includes a detailed roadmap to provide you with the tools needed to achieve sustainable improvements in quality, patient safety, productivity, and staff development and engagement. Watch Ronald Bercaw discuss how to apply the Toyota Production System to the healthcare industry. Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTnKWHZ82vM&feature=youtu.be Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBsoRcKDOaM&feature=youtu.be

Quality healthcare is a cornerstone of any healthy society. In the U.S., we have access to sophisticated medical technology, world renowned physicians, highly trained nurses and hospital personnel, advanced pharmaceuticals, and innovations in diagnosis and treatment. But for all of our sophistication, serious problems afflict healthcare systems across the U.S. today – problems that cause severe hardship for families in communities large and small. Considering its impact on society, healthcare is arguably our most important industry. Good health is a key aspect of a productive and fulfilling life no matter what a person’s age, cultural background, social status or career. To live well and provide for ourselves and others, we all depend on a strong healthcare system that can help us prevent illness and access effective treatment when we need it. Needless to say, building and maintaining that robust healthcare system is no easy task. According to a report by the Institute of Medicine, up to 98,000 deaths per year occur in U.S. hospitals as a result of adverse events. In other words, errors in hospitals cause more annual deaths than acceptable and are totally preventable. With the healthcare system in such critical condition, Lean is the best possible treatment as it moves to eliminate waste and improve processes. The revised edition of Taking Improvement from the Assembly Line to Healthcare supplies step-by-step guidance on how to implement Lean methods to achieve world-class improvement with the healthcare industry. The updated edition of this Shingo award winner book provides specific examples of Lean implementation in emergency medicine, diagnostic imaging, orthopedic clinics, general internal medicine, administration, and community care. Highlighting quality, safety, and financial evidence as to why immediate change is both possible and essential, the book provides a firm foundation in Lean improvement and the tools used to deliver sustainable solutions. This revised edition presents new and updated client interviews and how the process has changed or been enhanced, what worked and what didn’t work. New case studies from U.S. and Canada provide readers with the real-world understanding needed to embark and sustain a successful improvement journey.

Healthcare organizations that have already applied Lean thinking to their processes, with the diligence of effective management and strong leadership support, are now realizing the benefits of their efforts. And, many of those benefits surpass what was thought possible just a few years ago. To be successful, these organizations had to provide the l

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a reflection of the way your organization conducts business. If you’re looking to make lasting improvements in the delivery of care, you must start with looking at the system from your patient’s perspective to understand what is of value and what is simply waste. When you begin seeing in this way, you’ll begin building in this way. When you begin building in this way, you’ll begin driving improvements in your care delivery. Only then will your EHR be able to support lasting improvements, driving better patient care and outcomes at lower costs. Healthcare organizations are under increasing pressure to improve on all fronts. This can be achieved, but only by changing the very way we look at care. No longer can we look at care just from the organization or provider’s perspective; we must start with the end in mind – the patient. Compelling case studies, discussed throughout this book, demonstrate that modifying processes and workflows using Lean methodologies lead to substantial improvements. These changes must be undertaken in a clear, consistent, and methodical manner. When implementing an EHR based on existing workflows and sometimes antiquated processes, organizations struggle to sustain improvements. Many organizations have deployed an EHR and now face optimization challenges, including the decision to move to a new EHR vendor. The financial implications of upgrading, optimizing or replacing an EHR system are significant and laden with risk. Choose the wrong vendor, the wrong system, or the wrong approach and you may struggle under the weight of that decision for decades. Organizations that successfully leverage the convergence of needs – patients demanding better care, providers needing more efficient workflows and organizations desiring better financials – will survive and thrive. This book ties together current healthcare challenges with proven Lean methodologies to provide a clear, concise roadmap to help organizations drive real improvements in the selection, implementation, and on-going management of their EHR systems. Improving patient care, improving the provider experience and reducing organizational costs are the next frontier in the use of EHRs and this book provides a roadmap to that desired future state.

For decades, the manufacturing industry has employed the Toyota Production System the most powerful production method in the world to reduce waste, improve quality, reduce defects and increase worker productivity. In 2001, Virginia Mason Medical Center, an integrated healthcare delivery system in Seattle, Washington set out to achieve its compe

Value creation is a pivotal aspect of the modern business industry. By implementing these strategies into initiatives and processes, deeper alliances between customers and organizations can be established. The Handbook of Research on Strategic Alliances and Value Co-Creation in the Service Industry is a comprehensive source of scholarly material on frameworks for the effective management of value co-creation in contemporary business contexts. Highlighting relevant perspectives across a range of topics, such as public relations, service-dominant logic, and consumer culture theory, this publication is ideally designed for professionals, researchers, graduate students, academics, and practitioners interested in emerging developments in the service industry.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.

Healthcare Kaizen focuses on the principles and methods of daily continuous improvement, or Kaizen, for healthcare professionals and organizations. Kaizen is a Japanese word that means "change for the better," as popularized by Masaaki Imai in his 1986 book Kaizen: The Key to Japan‘s Competitive Success and through the books of Norman Bodek, both o

This book presents what the training within industry (TWI) program is and how its presence affects the understanding of work standardization, focusing on the practical aspects of the implementation of work standardization in the elimination of human errors in manufacturing and service processes.