Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill seeks best practices from ThedaCare model

 Avila, Larry
On Wednesday, about a dozen health care executives from around the country converged on Appleton Medical Center to observe operations as part of a two-day learning session through ValueCapture. For several years, the ThedaCare-owned hospital has been implementing efficiencies based on lean manufacturing processes. "ThedaCare is one of the handful of places in the country that's extraordinarily better than other places in the U.S.," O'Neill said, who served as Treasury secretary from 2001 to 2002. He was referring to its incorporation of lean into its operations. "They're practicing every day, continuous learning and continuous improvement, and anytime they detect an opportunity of a wasted motion or a mistake in activity, they have a process of not blaming people but for using the experience for learning and sharing that across the system," he said. "That's unusual in medical care."

No comments:

Post a Comment