American Society for Quality and Creative Healthcare announce online Lean training program for healthcare providers and suppliers

July 31, 2006

Scottsdale, AZ — The American Society for Quality (ASQ) and Creative Healthcare (CHC) announced today the release of a new computer-based training program for healthcare providers and suppliers. This online program introduces "Lean" techniques in healthcare, and responds to growing interest in this field by healthcare providers and suppliers. Release of the product coincides with ASQ's Quality Institute for Healthcare this week in Houston, TX.

Lean is a performance improvement methodology that focuses on eliminating wasteful activity and compressing cycle times, often through a "value stream analysis" or related activities to separate value-added activities from those that consume resources, but are not valued by customers. The ASQ/CHC program offers Lean training not only for hospitals, but for the full range of healthcare providers and suppliers, including managed care organizations, pharma companies and medical IT companies.

The interest in Lean follows from repeated findings that the healthcare industry suffers from a variety of functions that are redundant, wasteful and unproductive. Independent studies from the Rand Corporation, Institute for Health Improvement, Institute of Medicine, and Harvard and Dartmouth Medical Schools all estimate the amount of wasteful work in hospitals to be between 25 and 30 percent. This is work that could be eliminated immediately with no impact on patient care or the patient's perception of care being provided. Another study, by the Murphy Leadership Institute (Washington DC), suggests that for every 10 percent of wasteful work eliminated, a hospital can enjoy a 2.5 percent boost in operating revenue.

While the Lean program will be delivered online, clients can contract for complementary classroom instruction if desired. The program includes several case studies demonstrating how Lean is applied in a healthcare setting. It also includes tools, templates, and resources for project support. Users can access content on demand, or have the system in automatic lecture mode, reading content aloud and turning pages for them. "We wanted to create a program that would adapt to the way in which a student wants to learn," notes Ian R. Lazarus, CHC's Managing Partner. "In addition to being able to run the program on autopilot, users can access a variety of resources during their training, during their project work, or at any time they want to refresh or increase their knowledge of how to apply Lean successfully in the workplace."

ASQ and CHC collaborated on the new product, which follows from their earlier launch of a "blended" program in Six Sigma, another popular performance improvement methodology for healthcare providers and suppliers. The blended program includes an online training program in Six Sigma with complementary classroom sessions and project support.

The American Society for Quality, www.asq.org, is the world's leading authority on quality. With more than 90,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement, and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991.

Creative Healthcare, www.creative-healthcare.com, has supported healthcare providers and suppliers in performance improvement since 1998. CHC was first to recognize the importance of Six Sigma and Lean in healthcare, and has published widely on their potential. Today, CHC is a leading provider of project consulting and training deployment in healthcare. Their combined classroom and online Six Sigma training program, designed specifically for healthcare providers and suppliers, is available through ASQ.

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