We like to help you stay in the know about what's up in the Lean Healthcare world, which can often mean letting you know what our Mark Graban is up to. In case you don't know, Mark Graban is the author of two Shingo Research Award-winning books, and has worked as a consultant to healthcare organizations throughout North America and Europe, teaching and implementing Kaizen and other Lean management practices. He was previously a Senior Fellow with the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Healthcare Value Network and continues as an LEI faculty member. Mark is also the founder of the popular LeanBlog.org and its podcast series. He now serves as the VP of Customer Success at KaiNexus.

Mark was recently interviewed in Healthcare, an international, scientific journal with a focus on healthcare systems, industry, technology, policy, and regulation. It is published online by MDPI each quarter.

Highlights from the interview:

• The recent Ebola outbreak has raised “questions about the level of preparedness at hospital, confusion about protocols, accusations about a lack of planning, lack of preparation, [and] lack of training.”
  
  
• Hospitals can’t afford to be reactive. In a Lean organization, leaders create a culture of continuous improvement with fantastic results.
  
  
• Breaking down silos and having cross-functional teams is vital to the success of any organization, especially for hospitals and other health centers.
  
  
• It’s important to only implement technology which fits in with the organization’s existing work flow. If things are out-of-sync with work flows, information will fall through the cracks.
  
  
• Lean isn’t just about tools; it’s about problem-solving methodologies and frameworks for continuous improvement.

Read the complete interview

Hear more from Mark in the webinar "Making Time for Continuous Improvement:"