On August 26th and 27th the Healthcare Value Leaders Network #1 visited Park Nicollet (PN). The theme was using 3P (production preparation process) to change care delivery. 50 of us toured PN's emergency center,cancer center,eating disorders center, and other areas. My reflections follow.
PN has done a great job of involving their front line doctors and nurses in designing their new spaces using the 3P.In the operating room example we saw there were 10 mock-ups done of the new operating room before it was ever built and most of the people that actually do the work put their handprint on the blue print so to speak.
We always are looking for how noisy and chaotic care delivery is whenever doing gemba. Everywhere we toured at PN there was calm and quiet despite being very busy the day we visited. This is a sign the care delivery processes are stable and not in chaos.
We saw good evidence of one piece patient flow in several areas again a sign that the organization is incorporating the core principle of lean at the level of the patient value stream.
PN has done a remarkable job at understanding the data behind the care. This data is driving every decision whether it be to establish and design a new service or load level an inefficient staffing pattern.
Finally,there is a passion and commitment for improvement that was present in every staff member we spoke with. This is evidenced by the fact that no one at PN thought they were anywhere near finished with the work. There was acknowledgement that there were many things to improve. The purpose of these site visits is for the network members to learn from the site visited but for the site to get improvement feedback from the visitors as well. The PN team was excited to learn what the visitors thought they could improve.This genuine desire to receive outside feedback is another sign of PN's maturing culture around continuous improvement.
Congratulations to the PN team and leaders for a remarkable set of accomplishments focused on improving quality and lowering cost to their patients.
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