Cindy Jimmerson is a pioneer in lean health care, having initiated her Lean work with a grant from the National Science Foundation from 2001 to 2004. She is the founder and president of Lean Healthcare West, a corporation composed of expert health care and industry professionals. Lean Healthcare West offers education in and implementation of Lean principles in hospitals, clinics, long term care facilities, other health care facilities, physician office practices, community health care programs, and health care insurance companies. She is the author of "A3 Problem Solving for Health Care", the soon-to-be-published "Value Stream Mapping Made Easy," both published by Productivity Press, and many journal articles.  Cindy brings passion, insight, and creativity to Lean health care based on 30 years as a trauma system developer and emergency health care provider. She is now making a measurable impact on performance in health care organizations. She is in high demand as a speaker and facilitator both nationally and internationally in her mission to improve health care for patients, health care providers and staff, and the economy.

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Elsa received her Industrial Engineering (IE) degree from the University of Michigan College of Engineering. Her IE background and manufacturing experience has provided her a unique perspective on the application of Lean manufacturing concepts to healthcare. Elsa’s professional journey has led her to Lean Healthcare West where we are very pleased to be able to offer her talents to our clients. 

 

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Prior to joining Lean Healthcare West, Dorothy was a senior organization development consultant with Intermountain Healthcare, where she had worked for more than 20 years.  Her many roles in the corporate functions of IHC included organizational and staff development, CEO of behavior health division management, director of strategic planning, and quality improvement. She also has extensive experience in leadership and team development, coaching, and human dynamics training. She has co-authored publications in industry journals such as the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety and the Association for Quality and Participation.  Dorothy is a very popular facilitator of Lean Healthcare West's reVIEW Education and Implementation Program, where she facilitates clients in their implementation of Lean. . Dorothy earned her B.A. from Rutgers University and her M.S.W. in Clinical Social Work from the University of Utah. [close]

Evelyn is a clinical consultant with Lean Healthcare West. She has been the clinical director of three outpatient community clinics in Montana for the past 7 years.  In this role she has introduced the concepts and practices of Lean health care to improve patient services. She holds an adjunct faculty position in the Nursing Program at Montana State University, Butte campus.  [close]

Jayne earned a BSN and an MS with emphasis in Community Health from the University of Portland in Oregon.  She developed the Public Health Department in Teton County, Wyoming and served as it's Director for 22 years.  She was also Regional Health Promotion and Planning Director for the Wyoming State Department of Health.  She is currently chairperson of the Wyoming Board of Public and Environmental Health.  As a trained facilitator, mediator and professional grant-writer, Jayne has provided these services throughout Wyoming as well as nationally. She also maintains a private practice --an education-based Women’s Health office specializing in integrated options for women’s health issues, specifically menopause. She has received several  Wyoming awards of excellence for her work in health care services. She was also named "Woman of The Year" in Teton County, Wyoming.  For the past 6 1/2 years Jayne has taught Lean reVIEW programs across the US and Canada. She has called Jackson Hole, Wyoming “home” for the past 34 years. [close]

Jim has been engaged in education and implementation of Lean for health care since 2004. As founder and CEO of two companies that introduced tools and practices for Lean implementation to manufacturing, Jim brings 13 years of Lean practice and leadership experience to health care. He chairs the Lean Legacy Foundation, Lean Healthcare West's non-profit arm, where he is currently focusing on accessing grant funding for Lean implementation in healthcare organizations that require financial assistance.

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A professional writer for over 20 years, Naida Grunden has spent the last decade documenting Lean/Toyota improvements in the health care setting.  Ms. Grunden also shares an interest in applying what has been learned in aviation safety and reliability to health care.

In addition to writing numerous general and academic articles, Grunden wrote the book, The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare, which describes the work of the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI), a small nonprofit organization, which began in 2001 to pilot Lean experiments in competing hospitals across Southwestern Pennsylvania. The effort produced some of the first genuine, on-the-ground evidence that a Toyota-based industrial model could work in health care.

As more hospitals in the U.S. and abroad begin to embrace the principles of “doing more with less,” Grunden continues to teach, speak, and write nationally and internationally on the topic of Lean/Toyota in health care.

 

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