Lean Blog Interviews: Real-World Lean Leadership Conversations in Healthcare and Beyond

Dr. David Jaques, Lean in Surgical Services

Episode #76 is a discussion with Dr. David Jaques, VP of Surgical Services at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Jaques is a skilled surgical oncologist and surgery department administrator. He came to Barnes-Jewish after serving as vice chairman of the department of surgery and director of graduate education at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He received his medical degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, which was followed by a distinguished career in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He served as a combat surgeon in the Persian Gulf War and was later chief of surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as an oncologist. He served as the senior medical officer during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Honors during Dr. Jaques' time in the U.S. Army Medical Corps include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal. In this podcast, Dr. Jaques talks about how he has led Lean efforts that involve physicians in a unique "6/3" format that helps solve tightly-scoped problems without the need to have surgeons and clinicians for a full 4-day kaizen event. We discuss how he got started with Lean, improvements that were made in the "Mass Transfusion Protocol," and their broader Lean and physician engagement efforts. Really fascinating and innovative stuff. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Peter T. Ward, Lean Education Academic Network

Our guest today for Episode #75 is Peter T. Ward, a professor at Ohio State University’s Fisher College Business and Chair of the Department of Management Sciences. Professor Ward is a leading expert in lean management and is president of the Lean Education Academic Network. His research has been published in a number of journals, including Decision Sciences, Journal of Operations Management and Production and Operations Management. He is research director for the Center for Operational Excellence, associate editor of the Journal of Operations Management and Decisions Sciences. Among other distinctions, he serves as a judge for Industry Week’s Best Plants program. In this podcast, we talk about efforts to standardize and improve formal education about lean in universities and other academic settings. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Roy Vasher, Toyota Supply Chain Management

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Doug Burgess, Xerox Lean Six Sigma

Episode #73 is a conversation with Doug Burgess, Senior VP of Corporate Lean Six Sigma for Xerox. We talk about the Lean Six Sigma approach at Xerox, how they've used it internally and how they have used it to help customers improve processes and eliminate waste. The Xerox corporate website is: http://www.consulting.xerox.com/lean-six-sigma/enus.html For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

John Toussaint, MD on Lean Healthcare Reform and Fixing a Broken System

Our returning guest is John S. Toussaint, MD, the CEO emeritus of ThedaCare, and CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. In the interest of disclosure, he is a partner in our Lean Enterprise Institute efforts to promote Lean in healthcare.
Dr. Toussaint has been the guest previously for episodes #54 and #62 where he talks about ThedaCare's lean journey.
Dr. Toussaint is very well known for his leadership of the Lean efforts in the ThedaCare system, done under the heading of the ThedaCare Improvement System. ThedaCare has been profiled in the WSJ and many other articles about the quality and cost improvements they have achieved.
In this podcast, Dr. Toussaint talks about the current health reform efforts in Washington -- what is lacking and how Lean can contribute to fixing our broken healthcare system.
For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes.
If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Patrick Anderson, Chugatchmiut, Part 2

Episode #71 is the second part of a discussion with Patrick M. Anderson, the Executive Director of Chugachmiut, the Tribal consortium created to promote self-determination to the seven Native communities of the Chugach Region. I met Patrick at a Lean conference last year where he shared their experiences with applying Lean principles to healthcare delivery in Alaska. Part 1 of the discussion was Episode #53. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Tamra Kaplan, COO of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center

Episode #70 is an interview with Tamra Kaplan, the COO of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. We talk about the lean transformation work being done in the hospital and Ms. Kaplan's experience in leading this effort. For an earlier blog post about her promotion to COO and Lean at LBMMC, visit http://ow.ly/gyeX. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Dr. Sami Bahri, D.D.S., The Lean Dentist on His Book ’Follow the Learner’ *

* Remastered audio June 2021
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/69 
This is an interview with Dr. Sami Bahri, D.D.S., a dentist from Jacksonville, Florida. He is a pioneer in using Lean methods in the management of his dental practice. The book documents his learning journey for himself and his office staff as they learned how to apply Lean in a very non-traditional setting.
His book, Follow the Learner, is available from the Lean Enterprise Institute. You can also watch a webinar that he presented (archive here), along with some text Q&A follow ups that were recently posted.
There is also a video podcast version of this discussion available as episode #5 of my video podcast series.
 
 

Ben Harrison, The Role of the CEO in Lean

Podcast #68 is a discussion with Benjamin G. Harrison, President & CEO of Kaysun, a privately-held manufacturer that, for over 60 years, has designed and manufactured complex, high-tolerance plastic injection molded products and assemblies.
In his role as CEO, Ben is the champion for Kaysun's lean strategy and efforts and we discuss his support for lean in this episode. Kaysun was just named Lean Initiative and Plastics Supplier of the Year by Rockwell Collins, so congratulations to them for that award.
For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.

Matt May, "In Pursuit of Elegance"

This podcast is an interview with Matt May, author of the Shingo Prize winning book The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation. Available May 19 is his new book In Pursuit of Elegance. Matt's website is www.inpursuitofelegance.com. Come back for a 2nd conversation with Matt next week. There is also a video podcast version of this discussion available as episode #4 at www.leanvideopodcast.org. For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page at www.leanpodcast.org, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple iTunes. If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the "Lean Line" at (817) 776-LEAN (817-776-5326) or contact me via Skype id "mgraban". Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.