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Today, I’m sharing a link to some free “Lean 101” material that the AMA has created for physicians.

As I’ve blogged about before, it took 15 years for the American Medical Association to officially endorse an idea formally proposed in 1915 by Frank Gilbreth, an early industrial engineer. Gilbreth observed that surgeons spent more time searching for instruments than they did performing surgery, so Gilbreth suggested a “surgical caddy” who would keep instruments organized and hand them to the surgeon as needed. We’d take that for granted today.

It’s not just the AMA… but it’s commonly said that it takes 15 to 20 years for a new practice to be widely accepted as a “best practice” throughout healthcare. It’s a cautious, slow moving industry, I guess (see my post about Atul Gawande’s excellent article on “fast ideas and slow ideas.”)

I’m not sure when this initiative launched, but I just learned about it… the AMA is offering some online education about Lean in healthcare. You might want to share this link with the physicians in your organization:

“Starting Lean health care“

The info here is pretty solid. They include a long list of references, including my books.

Their definition of Lean is pretty good:

“Lean” is both a mindset and a method to engage physicians and staff in organizing their practice to run more smoothly. The focus of Lean is to eliminate waste, improve efficiency and add value for the patient.

At least they didn’t call Lean a toolbox. I do wish they had more explicitly mentioned quality and safety (they are forms of waste).

I think it’s worth sharing… I’ve sent it to some physicians I know. Maybe you’ll do the same. Hopefully this will help.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please scroll down to post a comment (or click through to the blog if you’re reading via email or RSS).

Original article: MDs Can Earn a CME Credit from AMA, Learning about Lean.