Lean manufacturing principles may have originated in manufacturing industries, but in recent years they’ve been used quite effectively in the healthcare industry, too. This topic is covered in a podcast over at Mark Graban’s Lean Blog, in which Graban interviews Paul Plsek, author of the book Accelerating Health Care Transformation with Lean and Innovation: The Virginia Mason Experience.
The two discuss Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, a hospital that has been employing Lean practices for over a decade to improve healthcare for its patients and to find innovative ways to increase the efficiency of the hospital.
Plsek has worked with healthcare organizations around the world—including Virginia Mason—and, as he puts it, “I describe my work as trying to help organizations think better.”
Learn more about Plsek’s work, his book and the ways Lean can be used in healthcare in the full podcast at the Lean Blog.
Additional Resources
- Lean Healthcare (Principles for Improvement)– creativesafetysupply.com
- Lean Methodology In Healthcare– creativesafetypublishing.com
- Kaizen in Healthcare: Improving Patient Care through Continuous Process Enhancement– kaizenforums.com
- Podcasts to Improve the Workplace– safetyblognews.com
- Lean Hospital– blog.5stoday.com
- Proof in the Pudding : Lean Can be a Great Risk Worth Taking– blog.creativesafetysupply.com
- Kaizen in Healthcare: How to Improve the Patient Experience– kaizen-news.com
- Principles of Lean Manufacturing– 5ssystem.net
- Continuous Improvement in the Healthcare Industry: Enhancing Patient Care and Efficiency– kaizensystem.net