Show notes: https://www.valuecapturellc.com/he33

We have two guests today, from Mount Sinai Morningside, a hospital in New York City. They are Lucy Xenophon, MD, MPH, the Chief Transformation Officer for the hospital, and Arthur Gianelli, MBA, MPH, the Chief Transformation Officer for the Mount Sinai system and he is also hospital president of Mount Sinai Morningside.

Host Mark Graban, Lucy, and Art talk about their Lean journey, which started about six years ago at Morningside. They view Lean as not only continuous improvement, but also a cultural transformation and a management system. Lucy and Art talk about how their Lean management practices, like huddles, served as a foundation that helped them deal with Covid pandemic. They used an iterative approach to meeting new needs, such as figuring out how staff could visually monitor patients without being in the room — a story that includes drilling holes in walls for cables, Nest cameras, iPads, and more.

They both talk about how their leadership roles changed during the pandemic and how they struck a balance between using formal Kaizen events, when needed, and staff knowing how to do smaller improvements without events.

We also talk about how they ramped up for the Covid vaccinations, walking the “gemba” (workplace) to identify stakeholders and to engage them in figuring out what to do. They used “dress rehearsals” that identified improvements before patients even arrived. Because they had Lean foundations of daily management and standardized work, staff were very equipped to set up and improve this new process with new requirements.

Lucy and Art also talk about how they've shared what they've done and learned on social media, including a series of “Lean Hacks” on LinkedIn, podcasts, and other platforms.