Rethinking Lean in Healthcare A Business Novel on How a Hospital Restored Quality Patient Care

This book deals with a hospital's struggle to secure and maintain financial stability. In the story, the leadership team of a fictional hospital adopts the tools and principles associated with the Toyota Production System or Lean. The story takes the reader through leadership's arduous journey from rejecting the methodology to embracing it, to successful implementation. This book is important because many of our nation's hospitals are besieged with financial difficulties with declining reimbursement and the public is losing confidence in our hospital's ability to provide quality care without error. Lean can provide relief from these issues but only if it is properly implemented.

"With this book, Tom Zidel expertly outlines the necessary elements and proper execution of process improvement in the form of a fast-paced business novel. Set in a hospital, we follow a senior management team overcoming organizational skepticism and resistance as it moves to rapidly implement a series of improvement initiatives as the core of its financial turnaround plan. Tom brilliantly incorporates descriptions of Lean principles and tools and the historical context of process improvement into this engaging book while demonstrating the power of Lean to dramatically improve patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes and business results." - James P. Hill, Senior Vice President, Administrative Services, MedStar Washington Medical Center