Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cambridge, MA, July 29, 2010 – To sustain lean transformations, CEOs must participate in
workplace improvement teams to demonstrate personal commitment to the change effort,
according to John Toussaint, MD, CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and CEO
emeritus of ThedaCare.
Toussaint is co-author of the new book On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives
and Transform the Industry (Lean Enterprise Institute, June 2010), describing ThedaCare’s
continuing lean transformation.
During a July 27 interview with Lean Nation, he described the positive impact of participating in
an early continuous improvement workshop in a hospital obstetrics unit. (Listen at:
http://www.790thescore.com/Article.asp?id=1892350&spid=35652)
The cross-functional workshop team was “flabbergasted that the CEO was there moving baby
warmers around” to improve the layout of the unit, Toussaint recalled. The involvement sent a
strong message that he was committed to the lean objective of creating a learning culture in
which everyone continuously identifies and solves problems.
“We have to fundamentally redesign healthcare delivery in the U.S.,” Toussaint said. “The cost
increases are unsustainable.”