DailyKaizen

What is our Value Stream?  I hear this question over and over again as I talk with different leaders in different parts of the organization.  As we have deepend and broadened our Lean knowledge base over the last six months people have begun to conceptualize the organization in new and exciting ways.  We are taking our first baby steps away from the only view that matters is the vertical view of the organization to we must begin to think and manage horizontally like our customers experience us in order to bring about breakthrough improvement.   We are beginning to think about cause and effect and through a process view.  And most importantly, their is plenty of evidence that our silos are starting to break apart.

Now back to the question.  We are a fully integrated system that includes both the insurance/financing of healthcare as well as the delivery of care itself.  This is rare in healthcare where most organizations either sell insurance or provide healthcare services.  We do both.  So does that mean that we have two enterprise value streams?  The first being the insurance product we sell?  The second being the delivery system where we see patients?  Many would argue yes.  Other organizations in healthcare have identified their value streams at the service line level like Cardiology, Orthopedics, and Primary Care.  We could do the same?  Does it make sense?

I believe the right answer rest with our customers.  When they choose to do business with us I believe they want the highest quality care, that is affordable and has a minimum cost/headache to consume.  That is why I believe we need to think about our Enterprise Value Stream as being a single stream that weaves together the services provided by both our insurance and delivery systems and operations.  A powerful combination that creates the right incentives if realized.  By conceptualizing and then organizing our organization around this value stream we could do things no others in healthcare can.   The value of truly integrated care where the best patient is the one that never happened, because the disease was prevented in the first place.  The founders of our organization had this vision, but we have never been able to fully realize it.  I believe Lean provides us a path to get there. 

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