Paula’s husband had just come out of open-heart surgery. Laying in the recovery room with a breathing tube in his throat, he was clearly agitated. He motioned at his arms to try sign language, but the limbs would not move. Paula (a nurse at the hospital) began to panic along with him. When the anesthesia wore off, he said his hands and arms were numb–they remained so for weeks. It turns out that when surgeons performed the procedure, they had leaned over the man and put pressure on his arms. With a single, small improvement, a nurse found that arm sled “positioners” could be used to tuck a patient’s limbs in place while removing the pressure.
It is often said that “people hate change.” But in this readable book, we see that people actually love change when: (1) they are fully engaged in the process, (2) they get to make improvements that help patients, and (3) they don’t fear losing their jobs as a result of the changes. At one hospital, the CEO offered to shave his head if employees generated ideas that saved $3.5 million that year. The staff responded with $7 million in savings (such as $22,000 by switching from paper gowns to cloth ones) and the boss shaved in public.
At another, the neonatal ICU had automated paper towel dispensers. A nurse noticed babies flinching from the ongoing noise and decided to study the impact of what turned out to be a 50 decibel sound. The kaizen result was manual dispensers which allowed babies to get more rest, thereby gaining weight and getting home sooner–saving $2,000/day ICU fees.
Whether you teach health care OM or are looking for great examples of kaizen for class, this is a book worth reading.