The most human of human services.

People in need of help because they're sick, or injured, or degenerating, or mentally ill NEED services from our provider institutions. Those institutions have evolved over decades and centuries, influenced by professional segregation, cultural expectations and an ever evolving technical and knowledge base. No wonder the focus on the customer has become secondary. Our approach is simple, and is guided by Bowen and Spear's definition of "Ideal" healthcare from 1999. "Exactly what the Patient needs, Defect Free! One by one, customized to each individual Patient. On demand, exactly as requested with an immediate response to problems or changes, with no waste, and safe for Patients, Staff and Clinicians: Physically, Professionally and Emotionally." Seen through these lenses, the vast majority of issues seen in the modern healthcare system become very transparent.

Recently, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) have issued some excellent work on this they have termed "The Trillion Dollar Checkbook". The premise is that there is about a Trillion dollars of waste per year present in the US healthcare system, and it's present in 7 major areas. Each of these areas is broken down into sub sections (in a driver diagram) with costed examples. They've also issued a call to action - Reduce this waste by 50% in 5 years. That's $500Bn in 5 years. The scale is staggering, and goes a long way to explaining the reasons behind the stupendous costs involved in the healthcare industry. 

Bryan Research has been dealing with healthcare institutions for almost ten years now, working at all levels within the organizations to solve problems, redesign and reorganize and improve operational performance. A few examples:

1.  A 13 hospital health system in the southern USA. We redesigned operating room flow, concentrating on turnaround time reduction, by optimizing supply chains, re-sequencing turn around activities and redesigning case cart setup, usage and teardown.

2. A 4 site health system in the northeastern USA. We analyzed both clinical and pathology laboratory workflows, redesigned them according to toyota production system principles and managed implementation of the changes to a stable system.

3. A 125 bed hospital in the midwestern USA. We analyzed and redesigned OP and IP processes to improve capacity management,quality and LOS. These improvements released $63m a year in previously consumed capacity.

4. An independent drug screening laboratory in the northeastern USA. We analyzed existing demand and capacity management strategies, introduced improvements to flow resulting in 35% extra capacity, designed a new laboratory layout and systems and project managed the move to the new laboratory facility.

5. A large, urban hospital system in NYC. We analyzed biomedical engineering issues around incubator availability. Redesigning this resulted in significant capital savings.

We have an extensive and deep knowledge base in all levels of the healthcare are system and can develop solutions for your institution with proven, demonstrable Return on Investment. 

We can work with you to understand the Trillion Dollar Checkbook and help identify waste targets in your organization. If you'd like to find out more, please call us at (802) 870 3433 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Prev
• Next