Healthcare Kaizen

Engaging front-line staff in sustainable continuous improvements

Published: Monday, June 25, 2012 - 13:25

(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Healthcare Kaizen, by Mark Graban (Productivity Press, 2012), focuses on the principles and methods of daily continuous improvement, or kaizen, for health care professionals and organizations. Kaizen is a Japanese word that means “change for the better,” as popularized by Masaaki Imai in his 1986 book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success (McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 1986) and through the books of Norman Bodek, both of whom contributed introductory material for this book.

In 1989, Donald M. Berwick, M.D., founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, endorsed the principles of kaizen in The New England Journal of Medicine, describing it as “the continuous search for opportunities for all processes to get better.” This book shows how to make this goal a reality.

Healthcare Kaizen shares some of the methods used by numerous hospitals around the world, including Franciscan St. Francis Health, where co-author Joe Swartz has led these efforts. Most important, the book covers the management mindsets and philosophies required to make kaizen work effectively in a hospital department or as an organizationwide program.

All of the examples in the book were shared by leading health care organizations, and the book includes more than 200 full-color pictures and visual illustrations of kaizen-based improvements that were initiated by nurses, physicians, housekeepers, senior executives, and other staff members at all levels.

Healthcare Kaizen will be helpful for organizations that have embraced weeklong improvement events, but now want to follow the lead of ThedaCare, Virginia Mason Medical Center, and other organizations that are doing more than kaizen events and have implemented a management system based on lean or the Toyota Production System.

It’s often said, without much reflection, that people hate change. The experiences shared in this book prove that people actually love change when they are fully engaged in the process, are allowed to take action that improves patient care and makes their day less frustrating, and when they don’t fear being laid off as a result of their improvements.

Healthcare Kaizen:
• Provides examples of documented kaizen improvement from multiple health care settings
• Discusses the three levels of kaizen—daily kaizen, kaizen events, and system kaizen
• Focuses on daily kaizen methods for staff engagement in the health care setting
• Includes a foreword by Masaaki Imai and an introduction by Norman Bodek
• Offers templates that are available for download at www.HCkaizen.com

Contents

Kaizen and Continuous Improvement
The Roots and Evolution of Kaizen
Types of Kaizen
Moving Toward a Kaizen Culture
Quick and Easy Kaizen
Sharing Kaizen
The Art of Kaizen
The Role of Leaders in Kaizen
Organizationwide Kaizen Programs
Lean Methods for Kaizen
Kaizen at Home

About Mark Graban and Joseph E. Swartz

Mark Graban is an author, consultant, and speaker in the field of lean health care. He is the author of Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Engagement, Second Edition (Productivity Press, 2011). Graban has worked as a consultant and coach to health care organizations throughout North America and Europe. He was formerly a senior fellow with the Lean Enterprise Institute and continues to serve as a faculty member. Graban is also the chief improvement officer for KaiNexus, a startup software company that helps health care organization manage continuous improvement efforts. He earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from Northwestern University and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering as well as an MBA from the MIT Sloan Leaders for Global Operations Program. Visit his website at www.MarkGraban.com and his blog at www.LeanBlog.org.

Joseph E. Swartz is the director of business transformation for Franciscan St. Francis Health of Indianapolis. He has been leading continuous improvement efforts for 18 years, including seven years in health care, and has led more than 200 lean and Six Sigma improvement projects. Swartz is the co-author of Seeing David in the Stone (Leading Books Press, 2006) and was previously an instructor at the University of Wisconsin. Swartz earned a master of science degree in management from Purdue University as a Krannert Scholar for academic excellence.

About The Author

Productivity Press

For more than 25 years, Productivity Press has developed the largest catalog available anywhere of publications and learning tools about lean methodology, continuous improvement, and operational excellence. It is currently the premier source of authoritative information on organizational transformation. Productivity Press is an imprint of CRC Press, a premier global publisher of science, technology, and medical resources. Its aim is to broaden thinking and advance understanding in the sciences, providing researchers, academics, professionals, and students with the tools they need to share ideas and realize their potential. CRC Press is a member of Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.