Charles Kenney

There are those who think America has the best health care system in the world, and that it is excellent in its own right. If they wanted evidence that the America was not the best in the world, they would read T.R. Reid's, The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, which points out the many downsides of America's health care system. But even if it was accepted that America was not "#1" in the world, there is still the presumption that the system is running very well. This book shows conclusively that is not the case. Take an already highly regarded medical center. Turn it upside down, and show massive, consistent improvements in patient care, patient satisfaction, cost reductions, staff satisfaction, and on and on. If they were at "excellent" before, what are they now? And since the new system is based on "constant improvement", what will they be in the future? This book shows the process for "transforming" health care, warts and all, thoroughly, succinctly, and, dare I say, entertainingly. Forget Obamacare and how America compares to the world. Read this book and find out all American's have probably been missing, at least, up to now. Highly recommended.… (més)

This book should really be read as a package with the author's companion book, Transforming Health Care, as both books center on the significant heath care management adjustment by the Virginia Mason Medical Center modeled after the production system used by the Japanese automobile manufacturer, Toyota. The first book concisely and rather dramatically points out the nitty-gritty of applying a management system working famously well in a manufacturing setting in Japan and applying it to heath care in America. This book follows up on the first book by concentrating on the leadership that choose, introduced, implemented, and has maintained that system for over a decade now. As someone who has been a patient at this medical facility for over 30 years, and married to a recently retired medical provider at the facility, I can vouch first hand for the transition the subject of this book addresses. Most, if not all people who read this book will be centered on the health care setting. What did it take to put the system into place? How has it been functioning? Is there something unique about Virginia Mason that makes the system less applicable or less successful for other medical centers? Are there inherent flaws in the system that will eventually lead to failure? In short, why should any other medical center buy into the concept? I don't need to ask can it work. I've seen it work. This medical center was well-respected before the transition, but it was being graded on the curve that applies only to those medical centers that don't know better. Look at this way. This production system is a bit like "Moneyball" was for major league baseball. Someone takes a significantly different approach to how they succeed in their line of business. Everyone else is doing things the old way. The new way succeeds over the old way and others buy into the new approach and a whole business transforms its management style. This is much the same for the health care production system highlighted in this book, with one very important difference. Unlike "Moneyball" which focuses on how the "managers" manage their team, this system goes well beyond that to how the organization -- the whole organization -- manages itself with strong, consistent, persistent guidance from its leaders. This comes through particularly clearly toward the end of this book. I mean there's a good reason the system is so comprehensive and self-sustaining. It has to be to work well with both automobiles and medical patients. Right?… (més)

The biography of a wise and self-disciplined woman born into a Roman Catholic universe in the suburbs of New York City in 1922. Joining the Sacred Heart community of nuns at twenty-three, Elizabeth McCormack rose within the order to become president of Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in 1966 during a period of unrest and change in the academic world. Becoming increasingly liberal in her thinking, she began to question Catholic women’s education, finding it less enriching than a catholic education, and also began to question the acumen of the Catholic bureaucracy and her own faith. Leaving the college and her order in 1974, she married two years later.

Elizabeth became an active force in the philanthropic world from a new career starting point as philanthropic adviser to the third generation of descendants of the first John D. Rockefeller, known as “the cousins.” While continuing to work for the Rockefeller family, and later, she served on foundation, corporate, and non-profit boards, where she was widely appreciated for her insightful thinking and straight talk.

As an example of how far Elizabeth traveled from her Catholic roots, I was particularly taken with her answer to an interviewer's question as to how she envisioned heaven. Her response: “500 billion people all milling around somewhere?”

An excellent read.… (més)