Quote from Transforming Health Care : Charles Kenney

• Quality service in Health Care “is about reliance on a well-constructed, continuously improving system that long outlives any leader, no matter how dynamic.” – Page 152
• Hospital leaders “were well enough along their (Lean) journey to set lofty expectations based on their belief that the principles and tools of (Lean) would enable them to address the problems in an innovative fashion that best serves the needs of both patients and staff.” – Page 94
• Outpatient operating room improvement produced the following results:
  • “Patient travel distance down 82 percent.”
  • “Patient time in process (defined as check-in to discharge on day of surgery) down 40 percent.”
  • “So often, people try and solve capacity issues by asking employees to work faster or harder or for longer hours without looking at their work from a system perspective.  When they inevitably fail, we assume that they need more resources – more tools, more rooms, more people, more inventory.  When we carefully study the work … more often than not, you reveal tremendous amounts of untapped capacity.” – Page 103

Courageous government leaders are asking the right questions about public service :

• Who Is My Customer?
• How can I provide a higher level of service to them?

• How can I accomplish more with fewer resources?
  
  

Process Improvements in government have lagged those in manufacturing or in the service sector.

Leaders of non-profits bring a noble vision and mission to the challenging operating environment of small resources for big needs.  Motivating and leading volunteers is a monumental challenge.  Continuous Improvement in non-profits means high-value stewardship in life changing contexts ….