Lean Blog Interviews — 246: Steve Montague, Lean, Checklists & Patient Safety

Episode #246 is my second episode in recognition of Patient Safety Awareness Week. My guest is Steve Montague, who talked about Lean and Crew Resource Management with me in episode #195 in 2014. He’s a retired Navy fighter pilot, a commercial pilot, and a consultant for hospitals and health systems… and a fellow Texan and a near-neighbor of mine. See his full bio here. Today, we’re talking about a number of topics, including patient safety and checklists… what’s the difference between good checklist systems and bad (and what are the parallels to Lean done well and Lean done badly). We talk about a number of articles and recent events about how NHS employees are afraid to speak up, an Iowa hospital that had four wrong site surgeries in 40 days, and the recent NEJM brouhaha.