Healthcare costs continue to soar. But one hospital system has combated the trend. Take a look at the journey Miami Children’s Hospital took to integrate Lean into their culture and the benefits that accrued.

Narendra Kini, MD, former CEO at Miami Children’s Hospital, part of the Nicklaus Children’s Health System in Miami, Florida explains how the hospital made Lean a way of doing business.

In the first video from 2009, the following departments discussed the implementation and their successes.

  • Patient Services
  • Perioperative Surgery
  • Radiology
  • Medical/Surgical and Nursing Operations
  • Emergency Department

In the second video from 2013, we hear from leadership and workers of the continued progress Miami Children’s Hospital made on their Lean journey. Various successful projects are introduced.

  • Crash Cart
  • Medical Laboratory
  • Unplanned Extubation
  • Supply Chain

You can view the 2009 video here and the 2013 video from Dan Perez Films.

Today, Miami Children’s Hospital has an established Lean Transformation Office whose stated mission is to:

  • Create the infrastructure for behaviorally-based continuous improvement, organization-wide
  • Connect the purpose and people of the organization from the top down and from the bottom up and across via formalized channels
  • Enable the mechanism for problems to be solved scientifically and locally, where they happen, when they happen, with top-level support to help build infrastructure to sustain improvements

While the focus has been on Lean applied in a hospital environment, the general methods and approach Miami Children’s Hospital has taken to implement Lean can be applied elsewhere.