Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality Patient Safety and Employee Satisfaction »

Mark Graban is an experienced consultant and leader, with a background in Industrial and Mechanical Engineering as well as an MBA from MIT Sloan Leaders for Manufacturing Program. Graban has worked in the auto industry (GM, as an employee, and Johnson Controls, as a consultant), the PC industry (Dell Computer, as an employee), and industrial products (Honeywell, as an employee).

Since August 2005, Graban has worked in the "lean healthcare" world, where he coaches lean teams at client sites, including medical laboratories and hospitals. His mission is to apply Lean and Toyota Production System principles to help build strong organizations, to improve quality of care and patient safety, to improve the customer/patient experience, and to help the development of employees.

Winner of a 2009 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize

Drawing on his years of working with hospitals, Mark Graban explains why and how Lean can be used to improve safety, quality, and efficiency in a healthcare setting. After highlighting the benefits of Lean methods for patients, employees, physicians, and the hospital itself, he explains how Lean manufacturing staples such as Value Stream Mapping and process observation can help hospital personnel identify and eliminate waste in their own processes — effectively preventing delays for patients, reducing wasted motion for caregivers, and improving the quality of care.

Additionally, Graban describes how Standardized Work and error-proofing can prevent common hospital errors and details root cause problem-solving and daily improvement processes that can engage all personnel in systemic improvement. A unique guide for healthcare professionals, Lean Hospitals clearly elaborates the steps they can take to begin the proactive process of Lean implementation.

The book has an accompanying website with more information.

Mark Graban was quoted in a July 2010 New York Times article about lean hospitals.

1 The case for Lean hospitals 1

2 Overview of Lean for hospitals 19

3 Value and waste 35

4 Observing the process and value streams 57

5 Standardized work as a foundation of Lean 73

6 Lean methods : visual management, 5S, and Kanban 97

7 Proactive root cause problem solving 119

8 Preventing errors 137

9 Improving flow 153

10 Engaging and leading employees 177

11 Getting started with Lean 203

13 A vision for a Lean hospital 231

Glossary terms 239

Index 245