10,000 Ways That Don't Work. Resilience in a Healthcare Journey

March 28th, 2023

Ever have a program or project not go according to plan? Share two decades of a lean healthcare journey: Successes and challenges. Reflect on your own journey. What does it take to convert the remains of an effort that went off the rails into something of lasting value?

John E. Billi

Dr. Billi serves as Professor Emeritus in Internal Medicine and Learning Health Sciences (Medical School), Health Management and Policy (Public Health), and Integrated Systems and Design (Engineering) at the University of Michigan. Dr. Billi's management and research interests are in health services delivery, especially the use of lean thinking to improve quality and efficiency, the use of community collaboratives to improve quality and population health, clinical practice transformation, the creation and use of evidence-based guidelines, and conflict of interest management. For 18 years Dr. Billi led the Michigan Quality System, the University of Michigan Health System’s (UMHS) business strategy to transform clinical operations through deployment of scientific problem-solving and coaching at all levels. MQS built on classic continuous quality improvement, incorporating holistic principles of lean thinking such as supporting workers and managers to take initiative to fix root causes of problems daily, supported by daily management systems, value stream management, and strategy deployment. The goal of MQS was to improve safety, quality, timeliness, financial stewardship, and people engagement in healthcare delivery through problem-solving by every worker and leader, every day. Dr Billi has helped hundreds of teams of physicians, other clinicians, administrative leaders, and trainees learn practical problem-solving through hands-on A3 workshops using their real work problems. Dr Billi led workshops on lean thinking within and outside UM, including a joint program with the UM College of Engineering with a nationwide draw.