Music to Our Ears

Like the transition from 8-tracks to iPods, SPPI will transform our health network

Positive change

Keisha Martin’s (top) 8-track tapes hold about 12 songs each and can’t be rewound. Kian Seyed’s (bottom) iPod holds 10,000 songs, any of which can be played immediately. As SPPI coaches, Martin and Seyed will help us change to work more efficiently, just like the way we listen to music has changed for the better.

If you were a music fan in the 1970s, you couldn’t wait to drive to the store to buy the latest Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin recording on 8-track tape. The tapes were awkward, and the “click!” in the middle of your favorite song was annoying, but you could listen to it in your car!

Since then, the way you listen to music has changed for the better. The 8-track is long gone, replaced by iPods that let you download songs and listen to your favorites anytime, anywhere, eliminating trips to the record store and the need for a fast-forward button. They’ve made the way you get and listen to music more efficient, or lean.

Now all colleagues network-wide will learn to be lean too. How? Through SPPI—the System for Partners in Performance Improvement. “SPPI is a long-term journey that will help us constantly improve the way we do things,” says Mary Kay Grim, senior vice president of human resources and SPPI co-leader. “Our goal is to eliminate waste and burdens so all of us can work more efficiently.”

SPPI has a language unto its own—and it’s important you learn it so you can help us become lean and avoid the fate of the 8-track. Here’s a handy guide for you to follow.

Meet our sensei
Mark Mahoney helped lead the growth of Ambrake—makers of automotive braking systems and components—from a three-person organization to a company that provides products to nearly every major automaker. He used lean principles there.

Now he’s a sensei (a Japanese term for a teacher or leader) for Simpler, a company that specializes in helping health care organizations (including us) become lean. “Mark is teaching six colleagues to be coaches,” says Tony Ardire, M.D., senior vice president of quality and care management and SPPI co-leader. “Our coaches will lead us on our lean journey to help us work more efficiently.”

Know your ‘value stream’
Our senior leaders are identifying areas for improvement. We’re calling them “value streams.” “We’re concentrating on areas where improved efficiency will be most valuable to our patients,” Grim says. Once a value stream is identified, SPPI coaches and our sensei will meet with eight to 10 colleagues to conduct a value stream analysis. “They’ll study the process to determine what is of value to patients and what isn’t,” Mahoney says. For example, driving to the record store for a CD doesn’t add value to the process of listening to music. Downloading a song to your iPod eliminates that step, improving efficiency. After the value stream analysis, the team will prioritize the areas of “waste” most needing attention (those that will most dramatically improve productivity and quality).

Take rapid action
After this analysis, a group will begin a “rapid improvement event,” or RIE. The group will include colleagues directly involved in the process, colleagues from a unit or department associated with the process, and colleagues not involved in the process who can offer a fresh perspective about how it is done.

During a five-day period, they’ll brainstorm more efficient ways to get the job done. “Instead of waiting months to implement their proposed process change, we’ll do it that week,” Mahoney says. “We’ll watch colleagues perform the new process to determine if it made their jobs easier.”

Show your success
On the fifth day, you’ll be invited to an event where RIE team members will share how they improved the process. You also can review a report, called an A3, that details the steps the team took to make the process run more smoothly. A3s will be displayed in the LVH–Cedar Crest boardroom until a more permanent location is determined. “It provides you an opportunity to learn, ask questions and make comments,” Grim says.

Learn from others
We’re already starting to produce our iPod. Colleagues are conducting our first value stream analysis by looking for ways to move patients from admission to discharge more efficiently.

“For example, we’ll look for ways to eliminate the time patients have to wait for a room, test, therapy or discharge,” Ardire says. Our first RIE report will be presented on July 18 at 8:30 a.m. in the LVH–Cedar Crest auditorium. If you can’t attend, find out our solution in next month’s CheckUp.

—Rick Martuscelli

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