Quoteworthy
A positive learning environment implies that it is a safe and welcoming space that allows for optimal acquisition of knowledge and care of patients. It is created by the words, actions, and attitudes of clinician-educators.
Kathleen Timme

Most Recent
Why We Cover Health Care Payment Reform

Why dedicate space to the hot poker that is health law and policy on this website? Context. We are an improvement community. We believe providing context is an act of respect. Talking about "the why" of complex healthcare topics (payment reform included) allows our frontline clinicians and staff to be empowered and informed.

Why Don’t We Teach the Eighth Waste?

The 8th waste is underutilization of employee talent. In this week's post of Steve's Dojo (or continuing Lean Six Sigma education), Steve revisits Taiichi Ohno’s "7 wastes" and answers why he doesn't teach the "8th waste" at University of Utah.

How Maintenance Management Systems Make Us a Safer Organization

Just under 40,000 pieces of physical equipment keep our hospital system humming—everything from hospital beds to air chillers. Casey Chandler manages the team that takes care of all 40,000 items. Here, he details the tools that keep us safe.

The Healthcare Value-Added Test

What if you could redesign healthcare from the ground up? If you were to start with the healthcare value-added test applied to each decision, what would healthcare delivery look, sound, and feel like? Would you be able to shake off the preconceived notions of what it takes to run a healthcare system? Would hospitals be recognizable? In this week's post of Steve's Dojo (or continuing Lean Six Sigma education), we revisit the healthcare value-added test.

Safe Systems, Safe Patients

Medical errors are a leading cause of death in the United States. What can we do to ensure our patients aren’t harmed while in our care? Former Chief Medical Quality Officer Bob Pendleton reflects on a simple concept to begin the conversation.

Lean Guard Rails: Using the EMR as a forcing function

The sepsis case study focused on the leadership challenges faced by hospitalists Kencee Graves and Devin Horton. This post is about the project’s technical achievement using a process improvement principle. Our system taught Epic, Utah’s electronic medical record (EMR) how to provide urgent, life-saving information to clinicians.

Steve's Dojo: Continuing Lean Six Sigma Education

Complete archive of the lean six sigma training series: Steve's Dojo.

Top 3 Data-Driven Tips for Holiday Travel

Healthcare isn’t the only industry experiencing whiplash-inducing change. Think about the significant change in the way we travel. We used to hear about a place or a particular hotel from a travel agent or friend, or gasp—the phone book. Today, the number of sites offering advice, recommendations and resources is astounding. In this post, we’re highlighting a few tried and true resources that leverage big data to make travel easier.

The Standard Work For Saying Thank You

Standard work is a visual guide to accomplish a job quickly and accurately. We asked our resident etiquette expert, Patient Advisor Mary Martha Tripeny, to put this Lean tool to the test by creating standard work for thank you notes. The holidays are stressful enough. This year, when nagging your children to write thank you notes, give Mary Martha’s standard work a try.

How a Surgical Unit Improved Response to Call Lights

Improving patient experience often starts with survey questions and comments, but reliance on these elements alone can be insufficient. Incorporating the voice and experience of the patient can provide a deeper understanding of the problem and unlock more effective 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 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.