by Ted Eytan, on 02 Apr 2007 05:40 am
The Journey
Still a Zebra
In the past few weeks I have been interacting with leaders at peer organizations in the area of health information technology, and I have been surprised to find that we’re still a bit of a zebra when it comes to the application of LEAN philosophy in this area. Despite all the hype around LEAN (even Newt Gingrich drops the “L” word in speeches now), it’s as important as ever to have the elevator speech ready about it, because for the few that are transforming along these lines, there are many who are not.
Given the amount of resources that the health care industry is putting into information technology ($17-42 billion in HIT expenditures in 2004, growth of 5-18% per year), this is one of the most important levers we will have to improve quality, safety, and affordability. At the same time, we won’t improve these things by implementing technology, we’ll do it by critically rethinking our processes when implement the technology.
Rather than this being bad news, it means that the story will have plenty of relevance to those who are looking to get the right things done more efficiently. In some of the interactions I have had, there’s almost a feeling of discomfort that one institution would offer to assist another in improving. I guess that’s a sign that we like doing things this way, because we’re comfortable recommending them to others, even our competitors.