Hi, this is Mark Raven and welcome to episode 30 to of lean
blog audio. This is a post from April 7
2020. Titled thoughts from lean
thinkers on, coping with the coronavirus crisis.
I want to give thanks to Elizabeth Swann and the team at
go lean Six Sigma.com for inviting me to contribute, some
thoughts in a piece that they titled how lean Six Sigma can
fight the coronavirus pandemic. So if you want to read that
entire piece with all the contributors, you can find a
link to it at lean blog dot org, slash audio 302.
So I wrote something, there were other contributors including
some people. I've interviewed and Mylene blog
interviews. Podcast series, Karen, Ross,
Crystal Davis, Katie Anderson, and to people I hope will be
guess at some point in time soon.
I'll be interviewing Mohamed Salah and I hope to interview my
friend Darryl will burn. So again that post at go lean
Six Sigma.com is titled how lean Six Sigma can help fight the
coronavirus pandemic, the piece I contribute, it is titled how
to be helpful. Not how to be healthful.
That's a good idea. How to be helpful in the world
of healthcare. So I'll read that for you in a
minute. We'll be right back with crisis.
Comes creativity in healthcare creative, countermeasures to the
covid-19 crisis, are a matter of life and death, you know,
because lean is not just a tool box.
It's a spirit of seeing problems, which are hard to
miss. Now, solving problems, and
solving problems for the benefit of others, covid-19 requires
people to develop new processes and methods for providing care
and protecting others, many Health Systems.
Have told their process Improvement professionals to
work from home, putting the employees, health and safety
first, but together with the Healthcare System, leaders also
often working from home. They can still develop new
standardized, work through web meetings and video chats cycles
of plan. Do study, adjust still need to
take place. It takes creativity to
facilitate from afar. Frontline staff were busy but
there are hospitals in parts of the United States that are
experiencing the Calm, before the storm.
They're taking this time to engage staff in the development,
testing and refinement of new processes for greeting and
triaging patients. Determining if they have
symptoms, that require them to be separated from other
patients, in the name of social distancing, one Health Care
system. I know his greatly accelerated
the development and use of telemedicine Technologies.
It's a short-term reactive Improvement.
That will probably From the norm will need it post-crisis because
it has so many benefits and the good news is that it's now being
reimbursed. Thanks to crisis-driven changes.
Given the problem of patients who can't be cared for outside
of clinics and emergency rooms. One Clinic I've worked with is
now using walkie-talkies and other Technologies to
communicate with colleagues and patients from afar technologies
that promote physical distancing, provide additional
benefits in reducing the waste of motion and transportation.
So they might also become The New Normal For some Health Care
Systems. They know a tsunami wave of
patients is coming. It's not a matter of if.
But when the wave hits their city or region, the tsunami has
already hit Italy, New York and other locales.
We need a spirit of collaboration where improvements
and new practices are shared around the world and across the
country reaching other Healthcare Systems.
Before the deadly wave of covid-19 hits their communities.
So I want to thank my friends at go lean Six Sigma.com.
If you go you can share the thoughts from all the others.
If you go to lean blog dot org slash audio 302.
I'm going to close. I love the sentiment from Daryl
will burn. He said, as a former Toyota team
member, I had drilled into my brain.
When times are hard, prepare for when times are easy, when times
are easy, prepare for when times are hard.
Thanks for listening.