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Category Archives: Articles by Dr. Toussaint

The Better Care Plan: a blueprint for improving America’s healthcare system

The United States falls far short of its potential for delivering care that is effective, efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable. We put forward the Better Care Plan, an overarching blueprint to address the flaws in our current system. The plan calls for continuously improving care, moving all payers to risk-adjusted prospective payment, and creating […]

John Toussaint Reflections – What does the future hold?

For now, it’s COVID of course. Hospitals are overflowing with sick patients, mostly unvaccinated. Outpatient departments are closed, and staff are reassigned to fight the latest variant, Omicron. The burden on healthcare workers is big and could have been avoided, which makes many sad, frustrated, and downright angry. So, hats off to everyone doing the […]

John Toussaint Reflections – What Comes First Technology or Process?

What comes first technology or process? As lean thinkers we know it’s always the process first. Healthcare is not wanting for technology. We’ve spent the last ten years implementing electronic health records, replacing legacy financial systems, and building information flow systems that allow caregivers to have access to real-time data at the point of care. […]

Electronic Health Records: A Radical Shift Beginning to Realize a Much Broader Promise

The conversion of paper medical charts to digital has been a massive effort over the past 10 to 15 years. The energy has led to the creation of an integrated patient record with every bit of information needed to provide diagnosis treatment and prevention while allowing full access of information to the patient. In this […]

Better Care Teams: A Key Element Of Better Care Plans

Why don’t more leaders embrace the organizational excellence transformation journey? We still live in a fee-for-service environment and there is little incentive for leaders to change their strategy. Team based care is critical to designing care models around patients but team based care is discouraged in the present insurance environment as well.  In this latest […]

John Toussaint’s Monthly Reflections – If I Were to Lead Another Lean Transformation

Over the years I have often been asked what I would do differently if I were to lead another lean transformation. The list is too long to cover in this monthly letter, but I would like to highlight two important learnings that would shape the transformation differently. View this message on Youtube. I would be […]