John Shook the former Toyota sensei and deeply knowledgeable teacher of the Toyota Production System published the following blog which describes what happened and the lessons we all need to take away from Toyota’s misfortunes. Curious that politicians had little comment regarding the study that was published last week on Toyota, this according to John […]
I had the privilege of going to the “Gemba” which is where value is delivered to customers at Seattle Children’s last week. What I saw gave me hope. Seattle Children’s has been on the lean journey off and on since the late 1990s. They re-committed to this journey about 5 years ago. There is clear […]
This new paper comprehensively reviews the core components of payment reform as well as findings from Harold Miller’s work around the country. The following is the outline of the paper click below to read it. I. INTRODUCTION: THE NEED FOR TRANSITIONAL PAYMENT REFORMS ………. 1 A. The Barriers to High Quality, Affordable Care Posed […]
David Cutler et. al. makes some very important points in this article regarding the need to create competition and not allow the ACO to become a completely hospital dominated phenomenon. On this blog in the last year we have made similar points including that the ACO should be focused more on delivering better value to […]
The following New York Times article points out the difficulty in writing the law that will govern the new health reform legislation concerning Accountable Care Organizations. I have been involved in a number of national initiatives trying to define the ACO concept. One of the efforts from NCQA released an 80 page document a couple […]
From the IOM in 1999 to the Hearst newspaper reports this year the facts continue to accumulate that America’s healthcare system is sick and making patients sicker. This new study suggests as many as 15000 medicare enrollees a month are dying of causes related to their hospital stay. From medication interactions to surgical infections. This […]
This article was published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. It is an interesting take on the importance of the Medicare data to understand physician performance from and quality and cost standpoint.It also describes a law suit from years ago by the AMA to block the release of physician specific data. The AMA won this suit […]
Orry Fiume is the former CFO of Wiremold, which at one time was one of the best lean companies in the world. He visited ThedaCare during a Center board meeting and shares reflections on “productivity” in health care. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GLXALbMZTU
Dr. Womack did “gemba” along with Maureen Bisognano CEO of IHI, Randy Linton M.D. CEO of Luther Middefort /Mayo Clinic, Orry Fiume author of Real Numbers and former CFO of Wiremold, George Koenigsaecker former president of Hon now HNI, and Helen Zak President of the Healthcare Value Leaders Network. These leaders visited the Encircle multispecialty ambulatory care […]
Our experience at ThedaCare has shown that convincing staff to help remove waste from care processes goes much smoother when they know their jobs are not at risk. Why would you work to redesign care and redesign yourself out of the organization? It has been important to have a no layoff philosophy in order to get […]
