ABSTRACT

This book deals with a hospital's struggle to secure and maintain financial stability. In the story, the leadership team of a fictional hospital adopts the tools and principles associated with the Toyota Production System or Lean. The story takes the reader through leadership's arduous journey from rejecting the methodology to embracing it, to successful implementation. This book is important because many of our nation's hospitals are besieged with financial difficulties with declining reimbursement and the public is losing confidence in our hospital's ability to provide quality care without error. Lean can provide relief from these issues but only if it is properly implemented.

chapter 1|10 pages

The Board Meeting

chapter 2|8 pages

The Cement That Holds Everything Together

chapter 3|6 pages

A Not So Restful Sunday

chapter 4|16 pages

An Unwelcomed Suggestion

chapter 5|8 pages

Identifying Waste

chapter 6|12 pages

A Lean Experiment

chapter 7|14 pages

Culture Change and Systems Thinking

chapter 8|14 pages

Status Boards

chapter 9|8 pages

The House of Lean

chapter 10|12 pages

Applicable Stories

chapter 11|6 pages

Creating the Plan

chapter 12|6 pages

Some Results

chapter 13|14 pages

Follow-Up Board Meeting

chapter 14|4 pages

No Time to Celebrate

chapter 15|6 pages

Meet the New Lean Consultant

chapter 16|4 pages

Kick-Off Meetings

chapter 17|10 pages

Training

chapter 18|6 pages

Staff Overview

chapter 19|8 pages

Rounding

chapter 20|4 pages

A Year Later