Saskatchewan leaders take sides on Lean

This article in the StarPhoenix summarizes the dueling points of view:Under fire from the Opposition, Premier Brad Wall defended the provincial government's spending on the "lean" health quality management system.  "The overall amount is a significant investment and when we made the decision in cabinet, we're a government that looks at these things from the perspective of thrift and value and it was a long discussion."The premier said the province is recouping its investment."We sought the very best and made the difficult decision to do this because of the dividends. What we're able to show is that between the savings just on the design of the children's hospital, on the design of the new Moose Jaw hospital, on the blood management system, we've recovered the entire costs of the four-year program, never mind all of the efficiencies that we have found," Wall said.Opposition Leader Cam Broten took aim at the government over the issue during question period Thursday in Regina."There are good components to 'lean' . . . but this government has taken the 'lean' process and allowed it to become fat, allowed it to become a cash cow for consultants," Broten told reporters.He said $40 million doesn't represent the total cost of "lean" in the province, since regional health authorities and other ministries also have "lean" contracts."I think it's gone overboard," Broten said. "I've looked at some of the Twitter feeds of health administrators who are paid to champ...
Source: Running a hospital - Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs