Perfecting Patient Journeys: Improving Patient Safety, Quality, and Satisfaction While Building Problem-solving Skills

Healthcare in the United States, and around the world, is facing a crisis brought on by a combination of rising costs, lack of transparency and accountability, and preventable medical errors. Applying lean thinking to improve care is one way that healthcare organizations can engage employees in solving problems in order to deliver better and more efficient care. Perfecting Patient Journeys is a guide for leaders of healthcare organizations who want to implement lean thinking. Readers will learn how to identify and select a problem, defi¬ne a project scope, and create a shared understanding of what's occurring in the value stream. Readers will also learn to develop a shared vision of an improved future, and how to work together to make that vision a reality. Over the past eight years, the authors of this book have helped healthcare organizations learn how to make real and sustainable change using the value-stream improvement method. Implementing lean thinking has helped healthcare prov