Quoteworthy
Learning is continuous. While right after training, everyone may be very aware of what they are doing and very careful to do it correctly, as time passes we become more comfortable. We might forget what we’ve learned. New challenges may change what we do.
Luca Boi

Most Recent
Spend Time Thinking Slow

Kyle Bradford Jones is back, this time with a deep dive into decision-making. Jones uses psychology to explain why it takes so long to adopt new evidence into our clinical practice and argues that we need to actively schedule time together in order to reflect.

The Science of Scheduling

Delivering a great health care experience is only possible with one crucial component: reliable scheduling. It’s such an essential part of efficient operations, in fact, that the University of Utah Health created an access optimization team to help providers across the system.

Celebrate Signal, Drown Out Noise

To celebrate the New Year, Value Engineer Mitch Cannon applied statistics to weight loss. He was quickly reminded of an important lesson that applies in health care: when you’re trying to improve, don’t overreact to data.

How to Avoid Two Common Biases

Balancing uncertainty, fear, and emotions isn’t easy — especially in health care. Family practice physician Kyle Bradford Jones looks outside of his practice to identify two common biases that affect how we behave in the face of perceived risk. His key insight? The risk that isn’t directly in front of us may be mistaken for no risk at all.

Holiday Gift Wrapping the High Reliability Way

First came High Reliability Thanksgiving. Then High Reliability Camping. In keeping with the Lean holiday spirit, Accelerate’s Marcie Hopkins shares her method for high reliability gift wrapping — with a little help from our friends in Sterile Processing, who’ve perfected the envelope fold.

Reasons to Build a Process Map

It’s part 2 of 4 in our series on process mapping. This post is about the reasons to build a process map. They’re inexpensive and so very often bear fruit for your effort.

Common Facilitation Challenges When Process Mapping

It’s the third consecutive post in the Dojo’s summer of process mapping. Today I discuss 4 common facilitation issues LSS practitioners can avoid prior to, and during a mapping effort.

How Utah Ophthalmology Analyzed Wait Time to Find a Better Solution

What is the strongest predictor of an effective solution? It’s not the size of the committee or the length of the brainstorming session. The best predictor of successful solutions is how well the problem is understood. Investing time in defining, investigating and analyzing the problem can lead to transformative solutions.

In "The Weeds" with Sylvia Burwell

1 in 3 healthcare dollars is paid for by the United States Health and Human Services, making them the largest payer in the United States. Chrissy Daniels shares this podcast that explains why HHS is changing and how Utah is keeping up.

How a Utah Radiology Team Decreased Suffering with Same-day Results

Improving value in healthcare means redesigning care to meet patients’ needs. We must push ourselves beyond patient satisfaction surveys to reduce uncertainty, complexity, and confusion in the delivery of care. Matthew Stein, MD, and the Breast Imaging team unflinchingly faced a source of uncertainty for patients: waiting for mammogram results.

How Utah Develops an Operational Plan

Translating strategic priorities into everyday execution across a large, complex enterprise might seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Our Operational Plan is a blueprint that combines processes, tools, knowledge, and skills to deliver on these priorities.

How Utah Oncology Created a Team of Teams

The following case study examines a new core competency in delivering value at a system level. At the University of Utah, leaders created integrated oncology teams organized for the patient. Collapsing historical silos and empowering front-line leaders grew adaptive teams that offered better value to cancer patients.