Assessing and Accelerating a Healthcare Organization's Lean Transformation

The Healthcare Value Leaders Network has partnered with the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence to develop an assessment process that provides Network member organizations with a way to understand where they are on their lean journey (their current reality), pinpoints gaps to the desired state, and provides feedback for addressing the gaps.

Based on the Shingo model (pictured at right), which has been applied within both the private and public sectors for over 20 years, the assessment process enables organizations to progress faster on their lean journey, by pinpointing areas of strength and opportunity. The process has been successfully tested at three healthcare organizations and we now have the capability to assess the leanness of Network member organizations. By training and utilizing volunteer assessors within the Healthcare Value Leaders network, it will be possible to offer the assessment to Network members at no additional cost.

The Network will test public assessment offerings in 2011 through collaboration with a business coalition in a major metropolitan area. Based on the results of this experiment, the Network plans to make the healthcare assessment process available for non-Network organizations for a fee.

Mike Hatch, Director of Strategic Planning at Intermountain McKay-Dee Hospital, Ogden, Utah, offers these comments about the assessment process that was tested at McKay-Dee: "Years from now, as we stand back and tell the story of our Lean journey, our first HCVLN assessment will stand out as a critical event. The feedback that came from the assessment caused our leadership team to become introspective about our Lean journey and their role in changing the culture of the organization."

Alan Gleghorn, CEO at the Christie Clinic in Champaign, Illinois, adds, "Lean at Christie Clinic has always been seen as a journey and it was great to get specific feedback, as well as specific opportunities to hasten our pace. The assessment was remarkable in that we had fourteen pairs of like-minded, lean-thinking eyes that saw organizational gaps and presented them in a way that spoke to what the Leadership and I are striving to accomplish. In my opinion, regardless of where an organization is on its journey, there is tremendous value in the HCVLN assessment and we look forward to hosting another as we move further along with our cultural transformation."

Jason Hirsbrunner, Continuous Improvement Director at Christie Clinic says, "The entire process of getting ready for the assessment was invaluable. Formulating our "self-assessment" really helped us focus on areas for improvement within our methodology and created a burning platform for our leadership. It was an honor to host such a select group of lean healthcare minds and their feedback has helped, and will be continually referenced, to accelerate the transformation of the culture here at Christie Clinic."

For more information, contact Mike Stoecklein at info@healthcarevalueleaders.org or call 952-334-3578.