A big congratulations to the entire team of leaders at Urology Associates and Anova Cancer Care for completing the Lean Facilitator training. This training focuses on lean concepts including creating robust standard work, reducing waste from our daily processes and driving sustainable change.
A common misconception is that “lean” is just a way to reduce costs. That is not the case. Instead, lean process improvement is a way of thinking and operating as an organization – a way to evaluate every process and continuously look for ways to improve. Lean process improvement takes a team and together we seek to:
• Increase patient satisfaction
• Minimize waste
• Reduce inventory
• Increase productivity
• Improve quality of care
• Reduce costs
With the guidance of our CEO, Rebecca Israel (LSS Master Black Belt) who has implemented lean process improvement in some of Colorado’s largest hospitals and healthcare organizations, our team completed several months of training.
A big congratulations to Patti Moyer, Cindy Maytorena, Tracey Hutchison, Marissa Flood, Erin Pade, Nicole Romero and Holly Harmon for their hard work and dedication in completing the training. Some of their favorite takeaways included:
• Take what you learn and use it in your daily work
• Every problem should be viewed as an opportunity
• Waste is disrespectful
• Changing processes takes trial and error and continuous improvement (Kaizen)
• Use the poka yoke method to mistake proof your work
• Don’t swallow the whole elephant – you can improve small pieces of the process
Our whole leadership team is excited to use lean guiding principles to reduce cost, improve productivity and most importantly, deliver exceptional patient care outcomes to those we serve.