Habitual Excellence — 69: Dr. Susan Moffatt-Bruce on the Science and Culture of Continuous Improvement

Episode page with video, transcript, and more

Welcome to Episode #69 of Habitual Excellence, presented by Value Capture.

Joining us today as our guest is Susan Moffatt-Bruce, M.D., Ph.D. M.B.A., FRCSC. She is a thoracic surgeon and she is the Chief Executive Officer at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

She was previously executive director of The Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center University Hospital.

Prior to that, she was the OSU Wexner Medical Center’s first chief quality and patient safety officer. She and her team were celebrated for their success in reducing patient safety events and hospital re-admissions.

Dr. Moffatt-Bruce completed medical school and residency in General Surgery at Dalhousie University. She undertook a PhD in Transplant Immunology at the University of Cambridge, England, and completed her Cardiothoracic Surgery fellowship at Stanford University, California.

She also trained at Intermountain Healthcare, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Moffatt-Bruce has aLean Six Sigma Black Belt certification. She earned her Masters of Business Operational Excellence and her Executive Masters of Business Administration at the Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University.

In today’s episode, Susan talks with host Mark Graban, about topics and questions including:

  • How did you get interested in the practice of continuous improvement?
  • “Science of continuous improvement”
  • Engaging surgeons in continuous improvement?
  • From singular improvements to a System level — How would you describe a “Culture of Continuous Improvement” in healthcare?
  • Successes — examples and impact?
  • Reducing patient safety events
  • Reducing hospital re-admissions
  • Challenges and lessons learned – things you would have done differently?
  • MBOE program — any other surgeons in that program? What did you learn about C.I. through that?
  • Aravind ChandrasekaranEpisode 25, academic director
  • How would you suggest others get started in their organization?

Click to visit the main Habitual Excellence podcast page.