Redesigning acute care processes in Wisconsin.

摘要

A combination of vigorous leadership, enhanced organizational development, and use of the lean improvement methodology led to substantial cost savings and quality improvement at ThedaCare, according to Kathryn Correia, a ThedaCare senior vice president. Dubbed Collaborative Care, the initiative was planned in 2005-06 and then formally launched in early 2007 in a medical-surgical unit at Appleton Medical Center, the second-largest hospital in the ThedaCare system. The planning stage started with an intensive examination of the principles and processes guiding inpatient care using the lean manufacturing methodology first made famous at Toyota, Collaborative Care has since been put in place in another inpatient unit within the ThedaCare health care system and is being implemented in a third. Plans are to have it in place in all inpatient units in ThedaCare hospitals by 2012.