Management on the Mend

Management on the Mend, The Healthcare Executive Guide to System Transformation, by John Toussaint, MD, with Emily Adams, Thedacare Center for Healthcare Value 2015

Five years after Dr. Toussaint's initial efforts in healthcare reform, his frightening Preface, a real story taken from his own life, retains its terrifying hold on the reader.  A detailed story of healthcare gone wrong, this short story shows just how many disconnects remain in a system that can kill - or cure - you.  

But it gets better.  Drawing on the journeys of 11 healthcare facilities , including Seattle Childrens, a leader cited in Target magazine, Toussaint covers the techniques manufacturing readers will recognize from the lean lexicon - value stream mapping, The Five Whys, leadership and coaching, going in gemba, visual management,  etc.  It does not, however, cover the whole messy area of Information Technology, an area that healthcare analytics and architecture have a good shot at solving before the  manufacturing sector.

Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Winona Health

ThedaCare

Salem Health

Lehigh Valley Health Network

SickKids

Seattle Children's

Memorial Care Health System

Providence Little Company of Mary

HealthEast

U. of Michigan Health System

Chapter 9, Clinical Business Intelligence, does, however, give a good description of how Toussaint developed a new area called Decision Resources back in 1999, a group staffed with 32 computer analysts designed to identify and provide the kind of information medical professionals need to replace earlier walk and talk methods.  The Salem Health solution and other money-saving citations could be expanded to cover a complete new book, one that covers the system architecture,  analytics, the patient tracking, and in-depth diagnostics and reference info that many institutions, including Lahey with its EPIC system, are now working with.  We'd like to see patient-centered IT covered next please.