1st Day of Lean Healthcare Summit & “On The Mend” Available Now!

We had an amazing first day at the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit here in Orlando. We have 260 Lean healthcare leaders, including about 30 physicians,   from 7 countries represented and there's a lot of sharing, learning, and inspiration occurring.

One highlight was the official unveiling and release of the new book about ThedaCare's Lean journey, co-authored by John Toussaint, MD and Roger Gerard, PhD: On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry.

In a first, the Lean Enterprise Institute has the book available in Kindle format (as shown at left) on the same day as the hardcover book is available. The Kindle version, which can be read on a Kindle device or other hardware (including your PC, BlackBerry, etc.) is only $9.99. The hardcover book is $30 through Amazon or direct from LEI.

I'm hoping this book will be very helpful in convincing other healthcare CEOs that Lean is most effective when it's a culture change that they lead personally. From CEO to CEO, we hope this will be an important book. It's, of course, not just written for CEOs – it's a helpful and interesting read for physicians and healthcare leaders at all levels. It is probably also of interest to those in more traditional Lean Manufacturing circles — read the book and pass it on to someone in healthcare!

The picture below shows John signing a copy of the book for the first time yesterday morning. John and Roger both held a formal book signing event later yesterday afternoon.

John also gave the opening keynote address, talking about some major healthcare challenges:

1. Payment systems don't reward value (high quality, low cost)
2. Total lack of performance transparency for patients/customers/public
3. Providers lack a consistent method for care improvement

Here is a short video of John Toussaint in his opening keynote, on Lean leadership:

You can also follow the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit using the hashtag #leanHC10 (click here to read yesterday's tweets and today's).

Conflict of interest statement: I'm employed by the publisher of the book and I was involved in editing of the book. I also work with John Toussaint in our Healthcare Value Leaders Efforts.

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Check out my latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation: