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Amnis, the quality, innovation and productivity organisation, along with the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM), has completed the fourth of an initial programme of five masterclasses aimed at helping healthcare organisations to transform the way they work, introduce Lean and think strategically. The latest masterclass was run at City Hospital in Birmingham and focused on how to embed Lean into healthcare organisations.

With over 75 per cent of Lean programmes failing to deliver the results they were expected to achieve, the Amnis/IHM masterclass focused on what the 25 per cent of healthcare organisations that are successful with Lean are doing.

Mark Eaton, managing director of Amnis and the author of the book ‘Lean for practitioners’, explained: “Leadership is one of the four key areas that determine whether or not Lean programmes will be successful.”

Eaton added that the masterclass covered the eight questions that leaders of Lean programmes need to ask themselves if they want to be successful:

• Do their leaders have a desire to improve?
• Do they understand Lean and what is involved?
• How will they structure their Lean programme?
• Do they have the discipline to ensure the process is adhered to?
• How will they show visible sponsorship of the Lean programme?
• How will they link their Lean activities to the organisational strategy?
• How will they engage their team and their partners in Lean?
• How will they recognise success and Lean behaviours?

The masterclass provided the answers to these questions and many more besides.

According to Julie Keith, from Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Trust, the masterclass “provoked a lot of thought and encouraged me to take further action,” while Suzanne Denley, from Central Manchester Hospitals NHS FT, commented: “This masterclass delivered more than was in the promotional literature and had a very knowledgeable workshop leader who engaged everyone.”

The next Amnis/ IHM masterclass will be on ‘Thinking Strategically’ and will also be run in Birmingham – this time on the 26^th February. This masterclass will reveal the secrets of how healthcare professionals can be successful by applying core strategic tools.

The event will focus on providing participants with an understanding of the core strategic tools that can help them shape their department and organisation. Moreover, according to Amnis’ Mark Eaton, the masterclass will enable participants to tackle real life strategic issues in ‘real time’ using the tools provided and the expertise of their fellow participants.

Eaton said: “We, at Amnis, are delighted by the feedback we’ve received from the participants to earlier masterclasses, which have focused on topics such as Sustaining Lean and Developing a Culture of Continuous Improvement.

“This workshop offers a different and more strategic perspective on healthcare transformation,” he continued. “We hope that it will appeal to both participants in earlier masterclasses and a whole new group of healthcare professionals.”

For further details contact Ruth Bodman (ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com) or visit http://www.ihm.org.uk/events/view/527.

END

About Amnis Limited

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in innovation, transformation and organisational improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.

Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.

Further information from:

Ruth Bodman, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002; ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

The difficult financial challenges facing the health service over the next few years, as it restructures its service models to release cash, are likely to be difficult to overcome for those organisations that take a tactical approach to improving performance, warns the quality, innovation and productivity organisation, Amnis.

According to Amnis’ Mark Eaton, any health sector organisation taking a tactical approach to implementing changes by focusing on isolated processes or pathways and not linking the front-line improvements to an overall transformation strategy is at risk of failing to bring about the financial benefits that are going to be needed.

“Significant and strategic change requires a strategic approach,” said Eaton, “and that starts by getting under the skin of the real objectives that need to be delivered, putting real numbers to the improvements that need to be generated and then identifying the key areas that will need to be transformed to deliver the required improvements.

“In addition, the future for the NHS can only be delivered through organisations working together to tackle the big ticket issues in a collaborative approach,” he counselled.

“This often means making a change to the way that senior teams work. It also involves the need to promote team working rather than the tribal warfare that can exist both within some organisations and across whole health economies.

“Moreover, it relies on impartial decisions being made about tough issues and recognising that, while everyone needs to win, they may not win every time.

“One thing that’s for certain is that organisations don’t need any more isolated ‘Rapid Improvement Events’ that aren’t linked to strategic goals and don’t help health economies to deliver their collective targets,” he stressed.

Amnis’s healthcare specialists offer a range of services intended to help organisations, especially those in the healthcare sector, to implement Lean successfully. For further details, contact Amnis’ client services director, Ruth Bodman, at ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com or visit http://www.amnis.uk.com

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About Amnis Limited

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in innovation, transformation and organisational improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.

Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.

Further information from:

Ruth Bodman, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002; ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

As part of its commitment to ‘transforming performance, leading change’ within the UK’s healthcare sector, the quality, innovation and productivity organisation, Amnis is running two Accelerated Lean Skills Programmes (ASLPs).

These three-day, fast-paced interactive masterclasses designed to give those who have little or no experience of ‘Lean’ the skills to participate in their first Lean events, take place in Oxford on 2^nd to 4^th February and Cottingham on 13^th to15^th April.

Delegates also complete a post-programme project to demonstrate how they have turned their knowledge into action. Combining training with practical exercises designed to reinforce learning, each ALSP is delivered by expert Lean practitioners in a supportive and interactive environment.

According to Amnis’s Mark Eaton: “This programme will appeal to both the complete beginner and those with some experience of Lean who are looking to consolidate their knowledge through a formal training programme.”

One former ALSP delegate – Simone Akuffo-Akoto, the Service Improvement Lead at Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust (PCT) – commented: “This is an excellent programme. It does exactly what it says it will – and gives you both the knowledge and the opportunity to apply the principles of Lean in your organisation.”

Coined by Jim Womack’s research team at MIT in the 1990s, ‘Lean’ means doing more with less. The core idea behind ‘Lean’ is to maximise customer value while minimising waste; thus, a Lean organisation understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continually meet those needs.

Amnis’ ALSP programme covers:

• Understanding Lean principles
• How to make Lean work in practice
• Practical Value Stream Mapping
• Exploring the core Lean toolkit
• Running different types of Lean events
• Creating a Lean implementation plan
• Managing Lean programmes and change
• Structuring your organisation to go Lean

Delegates receive all the relevant materials, exercises and a Lean book, along with telephone and email coaching support.

“The ALSP is a module in the Lean Leader Programme and is also approved by the Institute of Healthcare Management,” Eaton pointed out. “Successful graduates of the programme receive an endorsed certificate and CPD points.”

More information is available from Ruth Bodman on +44 (0) 870 446 1002.

End

About ‘Lean’

Coined by Jim Womack’s research team at MIT in the 1990s, ‘Lean’ means doing more with less. The core idea behind ‘Lean’ is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. A Lean organisation understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continually meet those needs.

About Amnis Limited

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in innovation, transformation and organisational improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.

Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.

Further information from:

Ruth Bodman, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002; ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Sustaining Lean – the fourth in a series five masterclasses for healthcare sector professionals jointly being run by the quality, innovation and productivity organisation, Amnis and the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM) – will explore some radical views. Among these is that healthcare organisations – including hospitals – are giving up too soon on ‘Lean’ based improvement initiatives.

Amnis’ Mark Eaton, who is also the author of the book ‘Lean for practitioners’, explained: “Basing improvement initiatives on the concepts of ‘Lean’ and ‘Lean Sigma’ – basically, doing more with less – is a sound principle but, for this to succeed, you need to change people’s working culture and behaviours as well as processes.

According to Eaton, the main reasons why Lean initiatives fail to become accepted long term practice within the healthcare sector are:

1. Rather than be a Board-led issue, Lean is launched at divisional or departmental level. This leads to fragmentation of activity and dissipation of effort.
2. Failing to align the Lean-induced productivity improvements with the organisation’s objectives. This leads to Lean being ‘out prioritised’ by other activities, put on hold and then mothballed.
3. Relying on external consultancies or agencies to run the Lean initiatives. Building internal capability and involving the healthcare organisation’s frontline teams is the only way to get Lean out of the textbook and into the clinic.
4. Not building the organisational resilience to withstand initial resistance to Lean’s principles and practices.

Recent research by Amnis shows that healthcare organisations can focus on using tactical tools to produce performance improvement – such as those found in Lean programmes – when they should be focusing on process and people in order to bring about lasting transformation and change. Amnis’ extensive work in the healthcare and other sectors has shown that the key to long-term success – and sustaining ‘Lean’ – is to concentrate on developing the right strategy for the transformation programme, including identifying the overall process to use and the steps to be taken, as well as engaging the front-line teams and then keeping them engaged.

Davinder Virdi, director of strategy at Amnis, said: “There are many healthcare organisations which have used Lean tools to address low level, tactical issues. However, our studies show that this approach nearly always fails to engage clinicians and that it is also difficult to link the resulting low level improvements to the organisation’s overall transformation strategy, meaning that nothing really changes.

“Being clear about the problems that need to be tackled – by engaging and continuing to maintain a dialogue with front-line teams as well as having a robust structure and strategy for improvement – leads to improvements that are better aligned with the organisational strategy,” he revealed. “Basically, you need to focus on the process of transformation and engaging people rather than ‘tools’ and ‘events’ in order to bring about lasting performance improvements.”

Mark Eaton, Amnis’ managing director, added: “In the Sustaining Lean masterclass, our specialists will be explaining and suggesting ways of how to do this successfully.”

The IHM’s Phil Slinger said: “Each of the courses we run jointly with Amnis generates extremely high satisfaction ratings from the delegates. This has encouraged us to discuss arranging a further, similar programme with Amnis for 2010.”

The remaining masterclass in the Amnis/IHM series is on ‘Thinking Strategically’, and is being held in Birmingham on 26^th February 2010.

End

About ‘Lean’

Coined by Jim Womack’s research team at MIT in the 1990s, ‘Lean’ means doing more with less. The core idea behind ‘Lean’ is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. A Lean organisation understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continually meet those needs.

About the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM)

The IHM is the professional organisation for managers throughout healthcare, including the NHS; Independent Providers; Healthcare Consultants and the Armed Forces.

The IHM’s focus is on improving patient/user care wherever and whenever healthcare is needed. The route to achieving this is through the promotion of excellence in healthcare management.

The IHM achieves this by:

• Publishing standards of management practice
• Promoting the IHM Code (covering behavioural and ethical aspects of management practice)
• Establishing a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) framework
• Promoting CPD and moving towards implementing a CPD validation mechanism
• Holding CPD events in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Establishing a coaches database to support members when they choose an executive coach

The IHM has access to the highest offices of the NHS. Many of the senior players in the NHS are members of the IHM. More importantly, by promoting CPD, the IHM influences the management practice of thousands of managers.

About Amnis Limited

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in innovation, transformation and organisational improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.

Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.

Further information from:

Ruth Bodman, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002; ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Amnis, the quality, innovation and productivity organisation, has revealed the secrets of successful problem solving to deliver service improvement and innovation in healthcare. Amnis’ specialists explained the secrets to a group of professionals from the healthcare sector at the third masterclass in an initial series of five being run jointly by Amnis and the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM).

Again – as in the other courses in this series – each delegate rated the course content, the presenter’s knowledge and skills and the degree to which the event met their needs as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.

According to one of the delegates – Barry Gent, the Practice Manager at Stock Hill Surgery: “It was an excellent course. I cannot remember one I have enjoyed more, or got so much from.”

The remaining masterclasses in the Amnis/IHM series are:

• 20^th January 2010 – Sustaining Lean (Birmingham)
• 26^th February 2010 – Thinking Strategically (Birmingham)

The IHM’s Phil Slinger said: “Each of the courses we do with Amnis is generating extremely high satisfaction ratings from the delegates. This has encouraged us to discuss arranging a further, similar programme with Amnis for 2010.”

Amnis’ Mark Eaton commented: “The masterclass on Problem Solving Tools for Service Improvement & Innovation was a joy to run because the delegates approached the whole event in a positive and enquiring frame of mind. I felt that we got the masterclass’ message across – and that should soon translate itself into service improvements within the delegates’ organisations.

“In our discussions with the IHM regarding next year’s series of masterclasses, we expect to continue to focus on both practical and strategic topics which are of great importance to the healthcare sector,” he said.

End

About the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM)

The IHM is the professional organisation for managers throughout healthcare, including the NHS; Independent Providers; Healthcare Consultants and the Armed Forces.

The IHM’s focus is on improving patient/user care wherever and whenever healthcare is needed. The route to achieving this is through the promotion of excellence in healthcare management.

The IHM achieves this by:

• Publishing standards of management practice
• Promoting the IHM Code (covering behavioural and ethical aspects of management practice)
• Establishing a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) framework
• Promoting CPD and moving towards implementing a CPD validation mechanism
• Holding CPD events in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Establishing a coaches database to support members when they choose an executive coach

The IHM has access to the highest offices of the NHS. Many of the senior players in the NHS are members of the IHM. More importantly, by promoting CPD, the IHM influences the management practice of thousands of managers.

About Amnis Limited

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in innovation, transformation and organisational improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.

Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.

Further information from:

Ruth Bodman, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002; ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Achieving real transformation in healthcare organisations requires more than a single skill set and, as many healthcare organisations have found, improvement programmes based on Lean are simply not enough according to Amnis, the quality, innovation and productivity organisation.

“Trying to achieve long-term change through a fragmented series of improvement programmes, or by focusing on one approach by itself – such as simply applying Lean or Six Sigma – is unlikely to lead to the level of change that healthcare organisations require in this challenging environment,” said Amnis’ Mark Eaton.

“The only real way to achieve and maintain sustainable improvements is via an integrated approach to improvement,” he added. “This approach needs to combine a focus on people development and cultural change with productivity and process improvement.

“Obviously, this needs to be combined with a management attitude that is both resilient and has the courage to tackle difficult issues,” he explained.

Carla Bickley, of Wolverhampton City PCT, commented: “We don’t believe we would have been able to move as far, or as fast, as we have done without the integrated support we’ve received from Amnis.

“The Amnis approach has helped us to create not only a successful service improvement strategy but also a thriving project management culture. This has drawn on a wide range of skills and has helped us to produce improvements in the way we deliver services,” she added.

Amnis’ team of multi-skilled consultants has worked with Wolverhampton PCT over 18 months, helping to put a range of strategies and tactics in place which has already seen significant process and performance improvements.

End

About ‘Lean’

Coined by Jim Womack’s research team at MIT in the 1990s, ‘Lean’ means doing more with less. The core idea behind ‘Lean’ is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. A Lean organisation understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continually meet those needs.

About Amnis Limited

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in innovation, transformation and organisational improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.

Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.

Further information from:

Ruth Bodman, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002; ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

The first masterclass in a series of five being run jointly by the specialist healthcare quality, innovation and productivity improvement enabler, Amnis, and the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM) has been hailed a resounding success, with all the delegates rating the programme as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.

The programme focused on the problems of introducing Lean and Service Improvement methodologies into healthcare organisations and was called ‘Service Improvement & Lean for Managers and Executives’. Participants came from a variety of primary and secondary care organisations as well as from private organisations.

Jeremy Morris, one of the delegates, said: “The session was clear, well run, participative and engaging. I found the clarity and practicality of the approach excellent.

“There are many things that I will take away from today, including the key experiences from other participants.”

Mark Eaton, of Amnis, said: “It was great that everyone derived so much from the session. It is further proof of the benefits of sharing knowledge and experiences both between similar organisations and across health economies.”

The IHM’s Phil Slinger said: “This was a great start to our programme with Amnis and I am delighted by the excellent feedback and testimonials. We’re already discussing running a similar programme in Scotland and are already planning our programme with Amnis for 2010.”

Dates for future events are:

17th November – Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement (London)

1st December – Problem Solving Tools for Improvement & Innovation (London)

20th January – Sustaining Lean (Birmingham)

26th February – Thinking Strategically (Birmingham)

End

About the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM)

The IHM is the professional organisation for managers throughout healthcare, including the NHS; Independent Providers; Healthcare Consultants and the Armed Forces.

The IHM’s focus is on improving patient/user care wherever and whenever healthcare is needed. The route to achieving this is through the promotion of excellence in healthcare management.

The IHM achieves this by:

* Publishing standards of management practice
* Promoting the IHM Code (covering behavioural and ethical aspects of management practice)
* Establishing a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) framework
* Promoting CPD and moving towards implementing a CPD validation mechanism
* Holding CPD events in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
* Establishing a coaches database to support members when they choose an executive coach

The IHM has access to the highest offices of the NHS. Many of the senior players in the NHS are members of the IHM. More importantly, by promoting CPD, the IHM influences the management practice of thousands of managers.

About Amnis Limited

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in innovation, transformation and organisational improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.

Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.

Further information from:

Ruth Bodman, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002; ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com 
Phil Slinger, IHM, 00 44 (0)20 7620 1030; P.Slinger@ihm.org.uk
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com