Julie Bartels shares her thoughts on IT’s evolution and its role in the lean journey. *** The days of waiting for the users in clinical and operational areas to ‘define their requirements’ and ‘tell IT what to do’ are long gone. I cut my teeth in Information Technology in the mid 1980’s. It was referred […]
This article is more evidence that public reporting of physician reporting improves performance. The study design compared other upper midwest healthcare providers with Wisconsin providers that reported data to the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ). The results indicate that the WCHQ members improved performance faster and farther than the organizations that are not publicly […]
Larry DeGhetaldi M.D. President of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in Santa Cruz California has been studying part A and B 2008 Medicare data by county and has found some very interesting results in Wisconsin. Dr. DeGhetaldi has recently testified at the Institute of Medicine (I.O.M.) on the issue of variation in medical costs. He has […]
The Medicare data files have been locked in a box for 30 years. Now News Corp. the owner of the WSJ wants to break the box open. The Center has proven that transparency of healthcare performance data is necessary to improve the way doctors and hospitals deliver care. This interesting twist from a newspaper may be the […]
Another peer reviewed journal article on the power of the lean methodology in healthcare. I’ve known Patty Gabow, the CEO of Denver Health, since she initiated her lean journey at Denver Health. This article describing the results at Denver Health is more confirmation that lean works in healthcare. In this case it’s in a safety net […]
Last week the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) initiated a consumer web site.This website utilizes WCHQ data on Wisconsin doctors to help guide patients.Using an easy to understand conversational style they begin to understand doctor quality The WCHQ has been working with RWJ as a member of the aligning forces for quality project (http://www.forces4quality.org/welcome). […]
The Institute of Medicine sponsored a meeting of national leaders on June 7th in Washington. The distinguished audience heard from Peter Lee the HHS Health Reform Director and Rick Gilfillan the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.Peter Lee outlines the changes coming to support value Peter Lee outlined a series of “value” incentives that Medicare […]
For the most part business has taken a back seat in the health reform debate. Now they are making decisions that may have more impact on what really happens with healthcare reform than anything the federal government can or will do. I had the privilege of spending the day with a number of high profile […]
ThedaCare has been on the lean journey for years and has been delivering better value to patients as evidenced by public reports of performance at www.wchq.org. Despite clear evidence of superior performance the payment system is not rewarding this improved value. The following paper was written to educate CMS officials as well as employers and insurance company leaders to […]
I think Steve has really nailed the core components of sustainability in lean. Lean transformation is really hard work and never ending. It is not for the faint at heart and it’s not just another healthcare project. Read what he has to say. “Many organizations have looked to Toyota for a model to emulate, in pursuit […]
