Quality Conversations...The Global Voice of Quality  

On this show we will be talking with our guest about the impact of Lean in healthcare, how freeing up time leads to better patient care, practical tools for improving care delivery, and many other Lean related topics. Mark Graban is a Senior Fellow at the Lean Enterprise Institute and author of the Shingo Prize-winning book Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Satisfaction. Previously, Mark worked as a consultant for numerous healthcare organizations across North America and in the United Kingdom. He taught and led teams of hospital personnel across multi-month lean transformation engagements in departments including laboratory, radiology, primary care, and nursing settings. Working with managers and senior leaders, these hospitals developed a track record of sustaining their lean improvements and also instilling a culture of continuous improvement and kaizen. With a background in Industrial Engineering, Mark first learned and practiced lean in various manufacturing industries, learning how lean concepts and management methods could be translated into different settings.

While saying leaders should use Management by Quality sounds good, it's about as likely as the moon reversing its orbit. Consider how much unlearning would be required to make room for MBQ. Consider all of the leaders and managers that have succeeded by gut-feel, trial-and-error and common sense. They aren't going to suddenly switch to a completely new management method without a significant reason to do so. An economic crisis isn't going to do it. We have to think of a better way.