The Lean Prescription Highlights Lean Management As A Proven Solution For Healthcare Delivery Improvement

Lean Management provides an in-depth, first-hand look at how Lean management can be applied to the U.S. healthcare system to eliminate waste, cut costs, engage employees and improve patient care.

Simpler Consulting, L.P., a Truven Health Analytics Company and leading global management consulting firm, today announced the release of a new book: The Lean Prescription: Powerful Medicine for Our Ailing Healthcare System. The book, co-authored by Simpler Senior Advisor and former Denver Health CEO, Dr. Patricia Gabow and former Denver Health Director of Lean Systems Improvement, Philip Goodman, provides an in-depth, first-hand look at how Lean management can be applied to the U.S. healthcare system to eliminate waste, cut costs, engage employees and improve patient care.

According a recent Institute of Medicine report on healthcare spending, 30 percent ($765 billion) of the $2.7 trillion spent on healthcare in the U.S. in 2009 was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, inefficient care delivery, fraud and other wasteful processes and practices. In addition, a study from the Commonwealth Fund released this year ranked the U.S. highest in per capita healthcare spending and the lowest in overall care performance.
“The sad but honest truth is that the U.S. healthcare system is not the best in the world,” said Lean pioneer, Dr. Patricia Gabow, who helped lead the charge on Denver Health’s Lean transformation as CEO for seven years until her retirement in 2012. “The good news is that American healthcare has the potential to be the best. Lean management is a proven, effective approach to engaging all employees in reducing waste and improving quality, both of which are key in achieving our full potential. I hope The Lean Prescription will convince readers of Lean’s powers using Denver Health’s successful transformation as a positive example.”
Aimed at the full spectrum of healthcare delivery – from hospital CEOs and clinical staff to paramedics and HMOs – The Lean Prescription provides a comprehensive look at how Denver Health utilized Lean to realize nearly $200 million of well-documented, hard financial benefit in just seven years. From leadership’s pivotal role in leveraging Toyota Production System principles and techniques for seeing and eliminating waste, to the process of Lean deployment and effectively using the right metrics, Gabow and Goodman walk readers through the Lean journey in its entirety, providing exercises to help readers get their feet wet in Lean along the way.
“I truly believe that Lean is the needed prescription – the powerful medicine – for our ailing healthcare system,” said co-author Philip Goodman. “I am confident that any healthcare leader that embarks on Denver Health’s journey with us through this book will agree and be inspired to transform their own organization through Lean.”

Source: providencejournal.com