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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chief Medical Officer of Press Ganey Tom Lee reminds us that value does not happen by accident, and good intentions are not enough. The goal of improving value has to be a major focus for everyone in an organization.

It’s clear that fee-for-service health care isn't working—so what alternative payment model does?

For years, the Exceptional Value Annual Report documented the performance of the organization on all 45 of the key initiatives identified in the Operational Plan.

Health care organizations and providers have some understanding what they charge for care. But nationally, providers have a “complete lack of understanding” about the costs of health care, according to Michael Porter, Ph.D., and Robert Kaplan, Ph.D., ("The Big Idea: How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care").

Utah “holds a unique distinction” when it comes to health care, according to a special report by the New England Journal of Medicine.