A very interesting post about “Getting physicians to buy in to lean health care” is available on HBR.org. The author presents three suggestions on how to encourage support from health care professionals:
- Physician leaders must anticipate and respond to questions about the appropriateness of applying concepts from outside health care to their organizations
- Change efforts must use simplified language and, where possible, terms and concepts more familiar to physicians
- Physicians using industrial metaphors should focus on the end goal – better health care – not the metaphor
I’m by no means an expert on “lean” and so I found the article insightful. It’s probably nothing new to people more familiar with the topic. I especially found the author’s final comment a great reminder about the importance of knowledge translation: “The health care industry can learn a great deal from other industries about how to improve quality and reduce waste. But the lessons have to be customized for the audience. This one case where how the message is delivered is as important as the message itself”.