"This is a terrific book. It is engaging and should be enormously helpful to anyone wanting to improve the efficiency and functioning of a healthcare enterprise. It clearly lays out why and how to implement Lean in healthcare settings."
-Richard D. Krugman, MD, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean, University of Colorado School of Medicine
"An inspiring book by one of the nation's leaders in health systems change that not only chronicles one major institution's transformation but empowers readers to follow suit."
-Sara Rosenbaum, J.D., Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor, George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services, Department of Health Policy
"For years, discussions of the broken US healthcare system have been long on diagnosis and short on solutions. The Lean Prescription: Powerful Medicine for Our Ailing Healthcare System aims to fix that. By mixing explanation, thought exercises, and real-life examples, Gabow and Goodman provide a thoughtful and accessible introduction to the discipline of Lean and its application within healthcare systems. By grounding the book in their real-life experience, they paint a clear and realistic picture of the commitment necessary, the enthusiasm and empowerment engendered, and the exceptional results Denver Health achieved for its patients and its staff. For any leader who's looking for a serious approach-not a silver bullet-to making a system work better for all stakeholders, this book holds a powerful message."
-Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
"The Lean Prescription: Powerful Medicine for Our Ailing Healthcare System is a prescription for excellence. It vaults to the top of the management must-read list. Patty Gabow charts a way forward for every health executive working to achieve breakthrough results for every patient."
-Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, President & CEO, America's Essential Hospitals
"Dr. Gabow demonstrates in The Lean Prescription: Powerful Medicine for Our Ailing Healthcare System how a CEO can change a culture and deliver massive improvement in healthcare delivery, including over $190 million in financial benefit over seven years, through disciplined Lean leadership."
-George Koenigsaecker, President of Lean Investments, LLC
"Patty Gabow and Philip Goodman have succinctly captured the enormous power of Lean management as applied to healthcare. In the process they provide exercises which can deepen the reader's grasp of concepts and tools. Notably, the accomplishments they document have been achieved in safety net institutions-a challenge and inspiration to everyone who works in such settings: even with constrained resources we can get better outcomes for our patients by systematically reducing waste and improving reliability."
-Mark Smith, MD, Retired, President and CEO, California HealthCare Foundation
"Dr. Gabow's amazing process improvements at Denver Health Medical Center were the inspiration for our own journey with Lean techniques. This book can teach specific techniques to other leaders in the medical field on how to improve their delivery of healthcare, with the focus on where it should be: on patients and their care. In these pages, Dr. Gabow has offered the great gifts of her experience and wisdom. For those with the will to improve, this book can be their guide."
-John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado
"If you have any responsibility for any part of the healthcare systems in the United States, your experience and the health of your patients will be better for having read, understood, and acted on the clear steps described in this unusual book. Not a treatise, it is a guidebook to take us from the jungle of cost, waste, and confusion to the clarity of efficiency and mission."
-Christine Cassel, MD, President and CEO, National Quality Forum
"With Lean, Dr. Gabow applies a concept developed and honed in the private world to public services. Lean's approach empowers workers to eliminate waste, improve quality, and reduce costs. We should embrace this thinking to improve the value of our public organizations."
-Senator Michael Bennet, United States Senator from Colorado
"Dr. Gabow and Phil Goodman have thoroughly captured seven years of experience in this engaging and straightforward re-telling of their highly acclaimed Lean transformation of Denver Health. All of us who know and worked closely with Patty appreciate her unparalleled attention to detail and hands-on leadership of her operations as CEO of this magnificent public hospital system. In The Lean Prescription: Powerful Medicine for Our Ailing Healthcare System that same Gabow mastery of nuances and the critical elements of transforming a large health system are factually presented, covering not just select clinical areas but the whole enterprise ... as it should be done. Bravo Patty and Phil for your crisp presentation of the why, the how to, and the real results of Lean's impact on Denver Health!"
-Marc Hafer, President and CEO, Simpler Consulting
"To non-initiates, Lean can seem alternately intimidating or dull. Patty Gabow has demonstrated its power in action through the results she achieved at Denver Health. Now she has written a readable guide to Lean that will be useful for managers, providers and all who are struggling to make healthcare work. This book is a great way to dive in."
-Margaret O'Kane, President, National Committee for Quality Assurance
"Lessons learned from implementing Lean at Denver Health are detailed in The Lean Prescription by Patricia Gabow, who served as CEO of Denver Health from 1992 to 2012, and Philip Goodman, the former director of Lean Systems Improvement at Denver Health. Gabow and Goodman provide an overview of the Lean philosophy and helpfully explain how it applies practically to a complex health care system, where processes and people are often siloed and wasteful practices often go unrecognized."
-Jessica Bylander, Senior Editor, Bookmarks, Health Affairs, 34, no.3 (2015):537-538
