Implementation of Lean Daily Management System at Nuvance Health

Industry: Healthcare

Keywords: Daily Management System; Lean; Implementation

Level: All Levels

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kristanoe

Deploying Lean Principles and creating a Daily Management System in a large company presents challenges. Nuvance Health took a narrow and deep approach to develop a successful management system that has sustained their gains. This approach has allowed us to scale over 100 practices across 2 states within 2 years. Problem Statement/Context: As a means to reduce physician and staff burnout, our leadership team implemented lean as a way to redesign our management system. This created a rapid response system to identify and address issues and barriers. This Allowed us to communicate more regularly and effectively and has improved our email fatigue and reduced the number of meetings. The idea generation has increased significantly making our employees feel heard and psychologically safe. This has had a significant effect on our patient experience scores, quality, financials, and additionally has had over 80% improvement in employee retention.

Nuvance Health Medical Practice began their lean journey in September 2021 as an approach to address physician and staff burnout. Tier 1 huddle board- designed internally by cross-functional teams established a Tired Rapid Response System up the chain of the organization: Tiered huddles- Tier 1 (front line), Tier 2 (director/region), Tier 3 (VP- Service Line or Institute), Tier 4 (medical practice executive) huddle. 118 front- line (Tier 1) huddles were deployed between September 2021 toMay 2023, across 10 various service lines and institutes Daily Management & Huddle training. This 3-day training focuses on respect for people & ideal leadership behaviors. -Leader standard work is critical to success. Preceptors who have already been through training participate to share experiences and insights. Kick-Offs with leadership presence and support, managers explain the huddle process, expectations, and educate their team Weekly Group Coaching Sessions with managers. This allows peer-to-peer coaching opportunities, topical discussions, and learning moments about different topics. Huddle Observations and on-site support with huddles, process improvements, and leader standard work Targeted transformations include 3 Value Stream Mapping Events for Primary Care, Heart and Vascular Institute and Pathology leading to 4 Kaizen events thus far.

Krista Antonowicz

Lean Facilitator, Nuvance Health, New Milford, CT, USA

Krista Antonowicz is a Lean Facilitator at Nuvance Health. She has worked at Nuvance Health Medical Practice for over 17 years in various administrative and leadership roles supporting outpatient practices. She was at the pilot site for the Daily Management System implementation and has helped to support Nuvance Health in their Lean journey. She has been a Lean Facilitator at Nuvance Health for over 1 year. She has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Degree from Southern New Hampshire University.