Joining me today for episode #357 is Michael Conroy, M.D., the Chief Medical Officer of Sutter Medical Group in northern California.
Mike was previously the Medical Director of the Lean Promotion Office for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and he was in that role when we first met about a decade ago. We collaborated on some Lean workshop training material for him to deliver to other physicians, through my role at Catalysis at the time.
In today’s episode, we’ll talk about how he was first exposed to Lean, we’ll take a few metaphorical elevator rides to talk about how Lean benefits patients and physicians, and shifting from Lean as tools or events to being a way of thinking and a common operating system for an organization.
Mike is board certified in Internal Medicine and is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians. After medical school at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, he did his residency at Virginia Mason Medical Center where he worked with Dr. Gary Kaplan, a well-known Lean leader who is now CEO of that system. Small world!