http://leanblog.org/audio38

When people ask me why I do what I do, my first answers are:improving patient safetycreating better workplaces for people

It's as simple as that. Those are the important problems that I'm passionate about (and have been able to help fix, at least in some local situations). At a more global scale, too many patients are hurt or killed by preventable medicalerrors. Too many people end up hating their jobs or going home crying or exhausted at the end of the day. That needs to change.

In my 20-year career, in manufacturing and in healthcare, Lean has been a powerful and effective methodology for meeting those goals, along with improving quality, reducing waiting times (for products or for care), and reducing cost.

But, not always.