KaiNexus: Continuous Improvement, Leadership, and More

In this episode, Chris Burnham (listen to his recent episode) acts as host and talks to usual host Mark Graban. Chris is eminently qualified to play host, as host of the long-running Lean Leadership Podcast. As one of the newest KaiNexus employees (or KaiNexians), Chris asks Mark about reaching the 10-year anniversary (or KaiNexiversary) of his affiliation with the company. Mark talks about how his role and relationship has evolved and shares some stories about how KaiNexus has continued to grow and evolve -- with more exciting things to come in the next decade!!! Mark's blog post about his 10 years The VacciNexus project KaiNexus Webinars KaiNexus Results

One of our newest KaiNexians is Chris Burnham. You might know him from his Lean Leadership Podcast. If not, check that out... he's again producing new episodes, and it's great listening. Chris has been a KaiNexus customer, he has lots of Lean experience, and he's a great fit to work with our customers and prospects as a Senior Lean Strategy Director. In this episode, Mark Graban asks Chris about his background, why he joined, and what he'll be doing -- how he's creating and shaping this new role. As a teaser, Chris starts to ask Mark why HE joined 10 years ago, but that will be in our next episode. And here is the blog post he wrote: https://blog.kainexus.com/why-i-joined-kainexus-and-what-do-i-do-chris-burnham

Webinar Presented by Dr. John Kenagy The Objective: Scientifically develop leaders at all levels to deliver exactly what patients and/or customers need at continually lower cost – low risk, high reward, fast. Kata Learning Objectives – Know why and how: 1. Conventional, data-driven leadership and management systems, projects, consultants, and technologies fail in complex, dynamic, unpredictable work. 2. Adaptive Design (AD) Kata improves standardized work in real-time. 3. AD Kata Leaders use the Scientific Method to improve at all levels: frontline to C-Suite 4. The people on AD Kata Teams discover, adapt, and improve as part of their daily work 5. AD Kata Leaders continuously replicate and scale results, success, trust, and optimism appropriate to their level and without waste of any resource (c) 2021, John W. Kenagy, MD. Adaptive Design and Ideal Patient Care are registered trademarks of John Kenagy About Dr. John Kenagy Dr. Kenagy knows healthcare as a vascular surgeon, executive, academic researcher, author, and innovator. But his most meaningful experience was as a patient following a critical injury. He discovered his survival depended on the efforts of dedicated, highly trained individuals working in an unpredictable, conflicted system (the current healthcare Kata). As a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School, his research translated Leading Indicator Systems from resilient companies like Toyota, Apple, Intel and Amazon to healthcare. His discovery: our solutions are designed-to-adapt Kata’s from leadership to the point of care.

Today, we bring you the third and final guest in our mini-series of Customer Month Spotlights here on the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Podcast with our host, Mark Graban. We'll do more of these interviews in the future, not waiting until next year (let's make every month "customer month"). Our guest for this episode is Eric Mellert, the Manager, Process Improvement Team at Christian Care Ministry. As it says on their website, Ii 1993, a formalized approach to sharing healthcare burdens began with the Medi-Share program. From small beginnings, this big idea took root. More than 25 years later, the Medi-Share program serves more than 400,000 members, and more than $2.6 billion dollars in medical bills have been shared and discounted. Topics and questions: Tell us a little bit about Christian Care Ministry and Medi-Share How did you get introduced to Process Improvement? Why do you not like the word "expert"? What’s your approach to PI there… how do you train people, how do you conduct improvement work? What were some of the challenges created by Covid times, including a fully-remote workforce? When did KaiNexus become part of the equation and how have we helped? How are you taking PI “from the few to the many”?

Today, we have another guest on the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Podcast with our host, Mark Graban. Our guest is Cliona Archambeault, the Director of Process Improvement at one of our customers, UMass Memorial Health. Topics and questions: In building a culture of improvement, what’s the explanation and expectation for new caregivers? Example of small improvements? Manager and leadership role? Impact of Covid on your improvement work? Using KaiNexus for idea system - 'Innovation Station" Why a phased approach to roll out? Tabulating stats and results numbers? 90,000 ideas — putting the old ones into KaiNexus

Today's guests are both part of the Process Excellence department at one of our customers, Memorial Health System in Marietta, Ohio. They are Lynn Howell and Mary Huck, both of whom have clinical backgrounds, but now help their colleagues throughout the system improve with Lean and other methods. Topics and questions: Tell us about the label of “process excellence” and what that means to the system? Shifting from being doers to helpers and coaches What's the role of a Continuous Improvement (C.I.) specialist? Why is starting with observation so important? How and why did you shift your team’s focus from facilitating projects to coaching others on their improvement work? What’s your belt training and certification process like, including the levels? Are there goals for who to train and certify? What's next for you and the system?

From May 20 -- See the video version Presented by Robert Pitney, Process Improvement Engagement - System Co-Owner at UMass Memorial Health Care Jon Brown, Continuous Improvement Manager at Crosby's Moderated by Mark Graban, Senior Advisor, KaiNexus KaiNexus has such an interesting and diverse customer base, and this Customer Month webinar certainly highlights that! Join us to hear two leaders share about their continuous improvement practices, how the pandemic has impacted them, and how KaiNexus is a big part of their approach and success. Crosby's: While molasses continues to be the mainstay of the business, Crosby’s has an ever-expanding line of dry-sugar-based products and syrups, with distribution in Canada, the New England States, and other international locations. UMass Memorial Health: The largest health care system in Central Massachusetts offering the region’s most sophisticated medical technology & support services. LINKS discussed during the session: Our published customer impact numbers….  Cumulative across all customers over 10 years  Eric Dickson on Lean and their turnaround strategy

A webinar presented on May 18, 2021 Presented by Dr. Joy Dobson, Senior Physician Consultant at 3sHealth in Saskatchewan, Canada See slides or video: https://www.kainexus.com/continuous-improvement/innovative-patient-first-vaccination-clinic-design/webinar/thanks Learning Objectives: Become familiar with a “care comes to the client” concept as applied in Canadian vaccination clinics Use lean concepts embedded in a “Patient First” model to improve value in clinics of any size We know there will be many innovative practices shared that will have application possibilities across borders and outside of vaccination work and settings.  The Q&A section included discussion of: Having just one month to prepare for vaccination How does their long-standing "idea process" work? About the U-cell: How does it address 30 minute observation vs 15? What are the causes of the variation in cycle times? Pre-filled syringes were a big part of that, other factors Do you start the day by filling up the pod or by pacing patients in at the cycle time?? They learned this over time...

This is a preview of a webinar that will be presented on May 18th... Learn more and register: https://info.kainexus.com/continuous-improvement/innovative-patient-first-vaccination-clinic-design/webinar/signup An Innovative “Patient First” Vaccination Clinic Design May 18 from 1:00 - 2:00 pm ET Presented by Dr. Joy Dobson, Senior Physician Consultant at 3sHealth in Saskatchewan, Canada Learning Objectives: Become familiar with a “care comes to the client” concept as applied in Canadian vaccination clinics Use lean concepts embedded in a “Patient First” model to improve value in clinics of any size We know there will be many innovative practices shared that will have application possibilities across borders and outside of vaccination work and settings. We hope you can join us! Dr. Joy Dobson Joy is a former anesthesiologist and critical care physician who now restricts her practice to health system care. She has held a variety of leadership roles and been part of a large-scale lean transformation in Saskatchewan. Since February, Joy has been part of the quality improvement team tasked with optimizing the vaccine rollout to 1.2M citizens in the province.

Welcome to one of our newest KaiNexians, Morgan Wright!  You can also read a blog post she wrote about joining the company, just a month ago now. Morgan is Customer Marketing Manager at KaiNexus. Welcome to the team!!!