Announcing the Pyzdek Institute Lean Healthcare Overview Course

Since 1967, Thomas Pyzdek has offered training and certification courses using the Lean Six Sigma approach in business management. The Institute now recognizes the need for Lean training in the healthcare industry. With health care costs increasing, but patient care remaining stagnant or declining, it is evident Lean training could change the face of the healthcare industry.

Lean training encompasses operational excellence by identifying steps through a value stream and eliminating waste in this process. This training has been highly successful in the Japanese culture in the auto industry. Lean training is now being introduced in the Japanese healthcare system as well. The goal is to use less to create more. In healthcare, money may not be the issue, but how the money is being USED is the issue. An example may be putting brake fluid into a car that has a hole in the brake line. No matter how much brake fluid is added, there will always be waste. The five steps in Lean Training are not difficult, but each step is important and must be repeated until the waste is eliminated. In the healthcare industry, the five steps are:

• Identify the patient population
• Map the stream value
• Get rid of the waste
• Pay attention to how the patients respond and see the value
• Pursue perfection

In the new Pyzdek Institute Lean Healthcare Overview Course, a three hour on-line overview course, the participant will:

• Learn what “Lean Training” is and its importance in the healthcare industry
• Learn the most important Lean topics (value and waste)
• Learn terminology and its application in healthcare

At a later date, The Pyzdek Institute will offer the Lean Healthcare Specialist Training Course.