
217Implementing Lean in a Healthcare Environment
is new to the organization, we have learned that the process owners do not have the discipline, Lean
knowledge, resources, or accountability to hold the gains and continually improve.
At Hospital X, this became a big problem. Once the project was done and the Lean team
moved on, the organization believed it was the process owner’s job to sustain and continue to
drive improvements. We agreed! However, if the process owner, from a Lean maturity standpoint,
doesn’t know what needs to be done and there is no one to coach them on their standard work, it
will ultimately fail. Finance said it was not their ...