En route to True North

"True North" is a key concept in Lean process improvement. It might be viewed as a mission statement, a reflection of the purpose of the organization, and the foundation of a strategic plan.

Here are illustrative thoughts from two observers:

The "ideal vision" or "True North" is not metrics so much as a sense of an ideal process to strive for. It sets a direction, and provides a way to focus discussion on how to solve the problems vs. whether to try.

If we don't know where we're going, we will never get there. "True North" expresses business needs that must be achieved and exerts a magnetic pull. True North is a contract, a bond, and not merely a wish list.

Lean is inherently the most democratic of work place philosophies, relying on empowerment of front-line staff to call out problems. The definition of True North, however, does not rely on that same democratic approach. Instead, it is established by the leadership of the organization.

At BIDMC, we have been engaged in a slow and steady approach to adoption of Lean. Our actions have been intentionally characterized by "Tortoise not Hare," as we methodically train one another, carry out rapid improvement events, and integrate the Lean philosophy into our design of work. As you have seen on this blog, staff members have come to embrace Lean and have used it in a variety of clinical and administrative settings.

(For more examples, enter "Lean" in the search box above. I have been presenting them here for some time in the hope that they would be useful to those in other hospitals who are thinking of adopting this approach.)

We have intentionally not, until now, tried to define True North, but things have now progressed sufficiently in terms of our application of the Lean philosophy that the organization is crying out for it. This is just as we had hoped. Establishment of True North before this time, i.e., without an understanding of its role, would not have been as useful in our hospital.

So, the clinical and administrative leaders recently met to try to nail this down. The process is not over. Indeed, our Board of Directors has yet to pitch in and offer their thoughts. But, we are far enough along that I thought you would enjoy seeing the draft.

Here it is:

BIDMC will care for patients the way we want members of our own families to be treated, while advancing humanity's ability to alleviate human suffering caused by disease. We will provide the right care in the right environment and at the right time, eliminating waste and maximizing value.

Here is some commentary to help you interpret and deconstruct this. The first sentence is based on the long-standing tradition of our two antecedent institutions, the New England Deaconess Hospital and the Beth Israel Deaconess hospital. The late doctor Richard Gaintner used to refer to the Deaconess as, "A place where science and kindliness unite in combating disease." That could just as well have been applied to the BI. As an academic medical center, our public service mission of clinical care is enhanced by -- and enhances -- our research and education programs. Our mission is to help humanity, not just the people who live in our catchment area.

The second sentence is offered in realization that the Ptolemaic view of tertiary hospitals as the center of the universe is no longer apt (if it ever was!) We need to view ourselves as being in service to primary care doctors, community hospitals, and other community-based parts of the health care delivery system.

On another level, it is also reflective of the fact that society expects us to be more efficient both within our own walls and in cooperation with our clinical partners, adopting approaches to work that do not waste societal resources.

In contradistinction to what I just said about this not being a democratically established statement, I offer our draft to you -- both those within BIDMC and worldwide -- for your criticism and suggestions. I don't know of other places that engage in this form of crowd-sourcing with regard to True North, but readers of this blog are unusually informed about health care matters, and I welcome your observations.

Transparency arises in the South

Novant Health is a not-for-profit health care organization serving more than five million residents from Virginia to South Carolina. Their team recently decided to dramatically expand the degree of transparency they provide with regard to clinical outcomes.

Paul Wiles, Novant's President, said to me: "We are delighted that you are willing to let your readers know of our efforts to enhance the field with respect to transparency of clinical information."

If you go to this website and click through the various categories, you will see an honest and open exposition of how they are doing on central line infections, ventilator associated pneumonia, and other important items. They mean it when they say that they are "committed to providing clear, accurate and honest information about the quality of care we offer to all of our patients."

Here's the VAP chart, which is illustrative, too, of the presentation of quite recent data. Why wait two years for national numbers based on administrative data when virtually every hospital collects real-time data on actual clinical outcomes?


Paul continued, "Our latest quarter is now posted. We had some improvements, some the same and unfortunately some declines in our performance. With our results in the public domain we have a real incentive to make our results better."

This view is consistent with what I have said before:

Transparency's major societal and strategic imperative is to provide creative tension within hospitals so that they hold themselves accountable. This accountability is what will drive doctors, nurses, and administrators to seek constant improvements in the quality and safety of patient care.

Congratulations to everyone at Novant for making this commitment. Do I detect a movement? Will the Boston hospitals join in?

Mungerson Lecture

I was honored to present the 2010 Mungerson Lecture at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center today. The lecture is named for Gerald Mungerson, an inspiring leader and a passionate advocate for the health and wellness of the communities he served. This included Boston, where, prior to going to Chicago, he served with distinction as General Director of what is today is part of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. (You see his son, Andy, and wife, Cynthia, in the accompanying picture.)

As explained to me by Susan Nordstrom Lopez, President, "Each year we select the Mungerson lecturer on the basis of his or her dedication to health care and record in improving a health institution, practice or community. Like Jerry, the Mungerson Lecture balances clinical rigor with the critical need to involve lay people in understanding, supporting and improving health care."

I was asked to expand on a topic covered on this blog, "On Purpose," with a particular emphasis on the role of quality, safety, transparency, process improvement, and patient involvement in the new health care environment. Of course, this was a bit like preaching to the choir, as Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center does an excellent job on these fronts. Their commitment to transparency is exemplified in these posters on the various floors of the hospital, where staff, patient, and visitors can see progress on a variety of indicators and metrics.

The cath lab goes Lean

I had a chance yesterday to get a presentation on the use of Lean process improvement techniques and philosophy in our catheterization lab. This is a very busy place where diagnostic and interventional cardiologists string catheters through people's blood vessels to evaluate the extent of cardiovascular disease, open up blockages, and extend lives.

Tech Kenny Lee and nurse Eric Harrington, along with Kimberly Eng from our Business Transformation group, led me through the analysis that has been done of the current state and the proposed future state. There will be dramatic improvements in the quality of people's work day as a result. In addition, staff and patient safety in and around radiation-rich areas will be enhanced. There have already been substantial improvements in inventory control, too, leading to major cost reductions. The renovations of the space and continued reorganization of supplies and equipment designed during the Lean process will take place in the coming weeks.

Here's a video tour. If you cannot see the video, click here.

Joint Commission Report

Representatives from the Joint Commission visited us last week for their periodic survey. I post below today's email from me to our staff. As noted, the actual report is available for all to see. We view that as an essential way to make sure all people here can benefit from this appraisal of our clinical quality.

Beyond the report and the email below, I want to mention an important item for your consideration. Many readers here will recall our dedication to transparency about a wrong-side surgery event several years ago. With full staff participation, we then devised a new pre-surgical protocol.

During this survey, this protocol was viewed in actual surgical settings by one of the surveyors, who said, "That is the finest time-out I’ve ever seen." The JC surveyors said they would recommend it as a "best practice" to be shared with other hospitals throughout the country.

I view this as yet another validation of the use of transparency to help obtain process improvement.

Here's the email:

Dear BIDMC,
As many of you know, we recently had a visit from the Joint Commission, the organization that accredits all of the hospitals in America. The surveyors from the Joint Commission spent several days here in intense review of our physical facilities, our information systems, and -- most importantly -- our actual delivery of care to patients.

As is the current practice, this was an unannounced visit, with the surveyors showing up on a Monday morning with just a few hours notice. The people who came were excellent, thoughtful, and comprehensive. There were six surveyors who spent a total of 24 surveyors days with us. In all, they talked with almost 300 of our staff members and visited 49 unique sites on and off campus.

They found some things that needed improvement, but they also had many compliments for the hospital in general and for many, many of you in particular.

My favorite quotes from them during the week were, “The team is impressive – it’s a privilege to be a witness to the care being provided;” and "They are completely committed to what they do -- inspirational."

Consistent with our practice, we want you to have the advantage of their work product, so we have posted it on our website. Please read it.

With gratitude and appreciation,

Paul

Fishbones

To follow up on yesterday's post about the CC6 Lean team, I had a few minutes today to drop by just as the group was getting engaged in fishbone diagrams. These are used to brainstorm in more detail the nature of major problems, looking at their components and then asking the "five why's" to conduct a root cause analysis.

As I walked into the room during a break, a couple of people mentioned to me that the morning session had been a lot tougher, emotionally, than yesterday's current state analysis. This is a common stage in the Lean process. It is relatively easy to map out the current state. When you start talking about why it exists, it is hard not to blame someone else in the room or someone who is not in the room. "If [name] only did this differently, we could solve the problem," is the common refrain I have seen in other rapid improvement events.

But, the idea of Lean is to focus on the problem and not the person. This is not about blame. It is about a workplace environment that has evolved over the years -- full of work-arounds and inefficiency and waste. By the time I left, the group was again smiling a bit more and collaborating on how to analyze the situation. Later, they will invent countermeasures to help undo the waste, setting goals and targets and timelines for the next steps.

Here is a short video about fishbones to give you a sense of the concept and how it progresses. Jenine Davignon from our business transformation group is leading the class. If you can't view the video, click here.

Wow, they work hard!

The roll-out of Lean at BIDMC continues throughout the hospital. A current project is to redesign the work flow on "CC6," one of our busiest medical/surgical floors. Although the staff has been working on this for several months, it can be difficult to find time during the workday to make improvements when nurses, patient care technicians, and others have full patient assignments. So, this week, we have taken two days aside for an improvement event, during which the staff will have dedicated time to look at their processes and experiment with improvements.

I dropped by for a short time today to watch people outline the "current state" of their work flow. A person in each job category prepared a step-by-step itemization of their daily routine. I offer a videotape of sections of this below. In order, you will see Stacey Adamson, physical therapist; Dawn Castro, resource nurse; Mike Crowley, unit assistant; and Laurie Phillips, case manager. You will also briefly see Jenine Davignon, a management engineer from our Business Transformation office, and Allison Wang, a college co-op student in that office. And finally Oscar Juarez and Sandra Espinosa, being reminded to post lunch breaks as part of a busy day in the work flow of a patient care technician.

I was impressed by the complexity of each person's job. I also began to see, as they presented their daily work, opportunities for reducing waste and improving the work environment and patient care. The team will undoubtedly find many more of those opportunities during this two-day session. If I can drop by tomorrow, I will report back to you.

If you cannot see the video, click here.