Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award
America's healthcare system needs to change. Not only does our country spend 16 percent of its gross domestic product on healthcare, but despite spending more than other industrialized countries, our general health lags behind. While we have plenty of data identifying where healthcare in America falls short, we've precious little practical, hands-on information about how to fix it.

In The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare, Naida Grunden provides a ingenious and optimistic look at how principles borrowed from industry can be applied to make healthcare safer, and in doing so, make it more effective and less costly. The book is a compilation of case studies from units in different hospitals around the Pittsburgh region that successfully applied industrial principles to the benefit of patients and the satisfaction of employees.

The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare is written for all healthcare stakeholders - from clinicians to insurers to employers to those who have the greatest stake in healthcare quality improvement, the patients.

About the Author:

Naida Grunden has been a business and technical writer for over 25 years, specializing for the past six years in health and medical writing for the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative. She writes the PRHI Executive Summary newsletter, a publication she founded in 2001 (www.prhi.org). Her work has appeared in publications as varied as the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety and Air Line Pilot magazine.

Ms. Grunden received the 2006 Challenge Award from the American College of Clinical Engineering for her article on the VA wheelchair work in Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology magazine. Ms. Grunden completed her B.A. in English at California State University, East Bay, and her secondary English teaching credential at California State University, San Francisco. She lives in Bellingham, Washington. Visit her website at www.NaidaGrunden.com.

About the Author

Naida Grunden has been a business and technical writer for over 25 years, specializing for the past six years in health and medical writing for the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative. She writes the PRHI Executive Summary newsletter, a publication she founded in 2001 (www.prhi.org). Her work has appeared in publications as varied as the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety and Air Line Pilot magazine.

Ms. Grunden received the 2006 Challenge Award from the American College of Clinical Engineering for her article on the VA wheelchair work in Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology magazine.

Ms. Grunden completed her B.A. in English at California State University, East Bay, and her secondary English teaching credential at California State University, San Francisco. She lives in Bellingham, Washington. Visit her website at www.NaidaGrunden.com.

Reviews

In one of our foremost healthcare classics, Naida Grunden lays out a detailed but brief story of Pittsburgh's healthcare success stories. They were among the very first healthcare institutions to successfully migrate Toyota production methods into a medical environment. Undoubtedly the practices have changed nearly 10 years post-implementation, and we have added new priorities in the IT area, but the starting point is essential reading.-Patricia E. Moody, FORTUNE magazine "Pioneering Woman in Mfg", IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

This book reports how managers- without more money or federal action-can use Toyota management principles to create an environment where it is difficult to make a mistake and people can take joy in work and deliver better and better patient care.-Clare Crawford-Mason, co-author, The Nun and the Bureaucrat: How They Found an Unlikely Cure for America's Sick Hospitals and Thinking About Quality: Progress, Wisdom and the Deming Philosophy

... chock full of pearls, useful tools, and inspiring stories of people and organizations who made quality improvement concepts and principles spring to life.-Robert M. Wachter, MD, Professor and Associate Chairman, Department of Medicine University of California, San Francisco, Chief of the Medical Service, UCSF Medical Center Editor, AHRQ WebM&M and Patient Safety Network

At a time when we are overwhelmed by the staggering evidence that health care systems that we depend on often fail us, here is a book that captures the power of real transformation.-Frank Christopher, PBS producer of the series Remaking American Medicine

I love this book! Like the Toyota Production System on which these case study improvements were founded, it is clear, concise and visual...I can't imagine a reader not being inspired to run out and find similar problems to tackle. I wish every reader the wherewithal to make equal progress!-Cindy Jimmerson, President, Lean Healthcare West, author, A3 Problem Solving for Healthcare: A Practical Method for Eliminating Waste
What exactly is workflow re-design? Can it really make the health care experience safer and more effective, efficient, and rewarding for patients and providers? Ms. Grunden answers these questions through dozens of fascinating examples which really happened in Pittsburgh's hospitals and are replicable virtually anywhere.-Christopher Guadagnino, Managing Editor, Physician's News Digest

This book reports how managers- without more money or federal action-can use Toyota management principles to create an environment where it is difficult to make a mistake and people can take joy in work and deliver better and better patient care.-Clare Crawford-Mason, co-author, The Nun and the Bureaucrat: How They Found an Unlikely Cure for America's Sick Hospitals and Thinking About Quality: Progress, Wisdom and the Deming Philosophy

... chock full of pearls, useful tools, and inspiring stories of people and organizations who made quality improvement concepts and principles spring to life.-Robert M. Wachter, MD, Professor and Associate Chairman, Department of Medicine University of California, San Francisco, Chief of the Medical Service, UCSF Medical Center Editor, AHRQ WebM&M and Patient Safety Network

At a time when we are overwhelmed by the staggering evidence that health care systems that we depend on often fail us, here is a book that captures the power of real transformation.-Frank Christopher, PBS producer of the series Remaking American Medicine

I love this book! Like the Toyota Production System on which these case study improvements were founded, it is clear, concise and visual...I can't imagine a reader not being inspired to run out and find similar problems to tackle. I wish every reader the wherewithal to make equal progress!-Cindy Jimmerson, President, Lean Healthcare West, author, A3 Problem Solving for Healthcare: A Practical Method for Eliminating Waste
What exactly is workflow re-design? Can it really make the health care experience safer and more effective, efficient, and rewarding for patients and providers? Ms. Grunden answers these questions through dozens of fascinating examples which really happened in Pittsburgh's hospitals and are replicable virtually anywhere.-Christopher Guadagnino, Managing Editor, Physician's News Digest

... a hopeful look at how principles borrowed from industry can be applied to make healthcare safer ... . The book is a compilation of case studies from units in different hospitals around the Pittsburgh region that applied industrial principles successfully, making patients safer and employees more satisfied. The book provides case studies describing how Toyota-based methods and tools work in the healthcare environment, and it compiles more than, five years of experiments in several health care facilities in the Pittsburgh region and beyond. It describes the simple, very specific, steps that these facilities have taken to: fix their systems-one-by-one solutions to real problems confronting workers in everyday settings, and describes success as well as failures, and how problems were solved. The book is written for all health care stakeholders, from clinicians, to insurers, to employers, and lay readers who have an interest in healthcare quality improvement.-Abstracts of Public Administration, Development, and Environment (APADE), Fall 2010

Book Information
ISBN 9781563273674
Author Naida Grunden
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint Productivity Press
Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
Weight(grams) 570g