Leading the Lean Healthcare Journey ─ Driving Culture Change to Increase Value

This book reveals and describes the leadership and culture change required to remove waste from healthcare processes and eliminate the root cause of soaring costs, poor quality and safety, and limited access. The book's delivery strategy revolves around personal and organizational stories and case studies told by physician and administrative leaders, all students of the Toyota Production System. This revised edition uniquely blends updated case studies with practical theory to describe how the healthcare value proposition can be changed by reducing waste, variation and complexity in healthcare. New to the book are chapters on clinical standard work and integration of lean and safety.

Joan Wellman has spent over twenty-five years consulting to large scale change initiatives in the aerospace, telecommunications, high technology, energy and healthcare industries. She pioneered the application of Lean principles in healthcare starting in 1995. Joan is a frequent speaker at national conferences, including Organizational Development Network, American Society for Training and Development, MGMA and the National Association for Healthcare Quality. She has served as a guest speaker for the University of Washington Executive MBA program and has served as adjunct to the faculty of San Francisco Graduate School.

Patrick Hagan was President and COO of Seattle Children's Hospital prior to working at JWA. He has a Masters degree in Hospital and Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Pat helped developed and led Seattle Children's Continuous Performance Improvement (CPI) strategy for over 10 years. Modeled on the Toyota Production System, CPI has been instrumental in Children's success in improving its performance in service quality, clinical access, patient safety, staff engagement, and financial results. He has presented at national meetings on building successful physician/hospital relationships, continuous performance improvement, and the importance of staff and physician engagement.