TL;DR: Hand sanitizer dispensers may seem trivial, but their design affects reliability, cost, and infection prevention. This post uses a Lean lens to show why simpler, manual solutions can outperform more complex electronic ones–especially in healthcare settings where failure isn’t…
It’s a simple question: what’s up with so many men wearing ties in healthcare? Are you / they wearing them because you like to, want to, or have to? When I worked at a video game and computer software store…
A few weeks back, I attended the Society for Health Systems (SHS) Conference in Orlando, where I chaired the Patient Flow track. There were a lot of great speakers and I have a lot of notes and ideas to share.…
As I had alluded to the other day, there was a huge investigative piece that ran across the country Sunday in the Hearst Newspapers. The main URL for the series is www.DeadByMistake.com. You can read all of the articles at…
TL;DR — Healthcare Quality & Patient Safety by the NumbersPreventable medical errors remain one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Research suggests hundreds of thousands of patients die each year from avoidable harm, while millions more are injured due…
Health care’s infectious loss – Video – Business News Short post for today – but an important one. Here’s a great video from CNN last week about preventing patient infections with Lean (or as they called it “inspiration from Toyota”).…
I’ve struck a chord with a few nurses with this post from late last year: Why Do Hospitals Have to Rely on Vigilant Patients and Families? I asked: I’ve written before about my questions of why so many hospitals abdicate…
Hand washing and proper hand hygiene is a big concern at most hospitals — thankfully so, since hand hygiene and other basic infection control measures can save lives, preventing or slowing the spread of harmful bugs like MRSA and C-Diff,…
Our Unsanitary Hospitals – WSJ.com That’s “Clean”, not a typo of “Lean.” Good column in the WSJ today by Betsy McCaughey, head of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths organization (link). She asks why restaurants and meat packing plants get…
I saw this ad (click on the photo for a larger, readable view) in the Wall Street Journal Monday. It’s an ad run by a patient advocacy organization called “RID” (Reduce Infection Deaths). The headline is “15 Steps You Can…
Hospital-borne ailments face Medicare budget ax | IndyStar.com Healthcare has LONG been a piecework industry. Caregivers and facilities are paid for WHAT they do and the services they provide. Doing more work gets you paid more, much the same way…
Ledger-Enquirer | 03/27/2007 | Campaign’s goal is to reduce infections To those who might have thought I overstated the situation with hand washing in hospitals, here’s another article about maintaining proper hygiene among hospital staff and caregivers. One particular risk…
