IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lean Transformations Require CEO Transformations

Cambridge, MA, July 29, 2010 – To sustain lean transformations, CEOs must participate in
workplace improvement teams to demonstrate personal commitment to the change effort,
according to John Toussaint, MD, CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and CEO
emeritus of ThedaCare.

Toussaint is co-author of the new book On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives
and Transform the Industry (Lean Enterprise Institute, June 2010), describing ThedaCare’s
continuing lean transformation.

During a July 27 interview with Lean Nation, he described the positive impact of participating in
an early continuous improvement workshop in a hospital obstetrics unit. (Listen at:
http://www.790thescore.com/Article.asp?id=1892350&spid=35652)

The cross-functional workshop team was “flabbergasted that the CEO was there moving baby
warmers around” to improve the layout of the unit, Toussaint recalled. The involvement sent a
strong message that he was committed to the lean objective of creating a learning culture in
which everyone continuously identifies and solves problems.

Toussaint also discussed

• How to remodel leadership behaviors to support continuous improvement.
• How to involve patients in the improvement process.
• How to engage staff and doctors.
• How to change healthcare’s “shame and blame” culture.
• The state of U.S. healthcare and healthcare reform.
• How lean principles can improve the quality of healthcare delivery while lowering costs.

“We have to fundamentally redesign healthcare delivery in the U.S.,” Toussaint said. “The cost
increases are unsustainable.”

ThedaCare, a four-hospital healthcare system in Wisconsin, slashed errors, improved patient

outcomes, raised staff morale, and saved $27 million dollars without layoffs since Toussaint
launched its lean transformation in 2002. The continuing transformation is detailed in On the
Mend, which describes the lean tools ThedaCare used but more importantly how it changed
senior leadership thinking and behaviors.

Lean Enterprise Institute

Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc., was founded in 1997 by management expert James P. Womack,
Ph.D., as a nonprofit research, education, publishing, and conference company with a mission to
advance lean thinking around the world. Learn more at http://www.lean.org

ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value

The ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value is a not-for profit with a mission to change care
delivery and payment incentives to reward the best performers on quality and cost and to build
and facilitate learning networks of healthcare providers. Learn more at:
http://www.createhealthcarevalue.com/

Media: Chet Marchwinski, cmarchwinski@lean.org, 617-871-2930