Group Health has made terrific strides in their quest to build a culture of continuous improvement using lean.
The HCVLN met in Seattle on Nov. 5th and 6th and visited Group Health of Puget Sound. What a great experience seeing the progress Group Health has made in their Lean implementation. We visited sites where executives and managers had standard work for leading improvement. We observed visual control boards focused on quality, staffing, and service.At Group Health there is a palpable difference in the way staff and physicians think and act about delivering care to patients. We observed a humility and respect for patients and each other which is at the root of the new culture.
So what? Group Health has recently published the answer to this question in the American Journal of Managed Care September issue.Their redesign of primary care using lean has achieved a 30% reduction in E.R. visits as well as an 11% reduction in ambulatory sensitive admissions .(These are admissions from an outpatient clinic that could have been avoided if appropriate resources were available to care for the patient in an ambulatory setting.) The 2 year follow-up data will be released shortly but promise to show even more remarkable improvement.
These results as well as ThedaCare’s results reported in Health Affairs in September and other published results are making it clear that the methodology to radically change health care is finally upon us. It’s not easy and it’s not just a project. It involves changing each and every person from the CEO to the administrative assistant but those organizations that change can produce improvements in cost and quality never before dreamed of.
Congratulations Group Health, keep it up, the world is watching! .
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