Eight years ago, our CEO Dan Winkelman engaged YKHC in a journey to address customer service and improve quality within YKHC. We began to provide customer service training throughout the corporation, including leadership. YKHC also began the journey of becoming a “Lean” corporation, following best practices first identified by Toyota and which have been implemented in the highest performing health corporations in our country. Mileposts we have attained include daily huddles at Lean boards throughout YKHC, and the daily CEO safety and quality call at 10 am. 

The pandemic slowed much of our progress and training. With the most urgent phase of COVID-19 receding, YKHC is recommitting to the important work of supporting a culture of continuous quality improvement at YKHC. We want to use employee input to help continually improve systems, processes and workflows to create a better experience for employees and our customers.  

We are happy to announce that we have contracted with Virginia Mason Institute, a leader in Lean implementation and training, to reinvigorate our Lean quality journey. Starting this month, YKHC leaders, selected managers and front line employees began intensive trainings in the tools of Lean. We invite all our employees to become partners in our quality journey. For those of us invited to the first round of trainings, our goal is to listen. We want to know what’s working well in your department and what could be improved. We are looking to learn from you, the subject matter experts. 

These employees will be attending in-depth trainings on continuous performance improvement and will be sharing what they learn. You may hear more about Lean quality management tools, such as huddles, A3s and more. We encourage you to ask if any of these terms are unfamiliar.

Building a culture of continuous quality improvement is hard work. It will take effort from all of us. Success will be incremental; it will not happen in one week, month or even year. But with your commitment to working with leaders on this transformation, we expect to be successful.

In upcoming weeks, you will hear more about this journey from your leaders, in conversations, in meetings and via email. If you have questions or ideas along the way, please share them. With your participation, we will build a culture of continuous quality performance improvement, where your good ideas are heard and implemented, and we elevate the patient experience of receiving care at YKHC.

Jospeh Klejka, MD, Vice President of Quality