Healthcare
20 articles, newest first.
All AI 33Theory of Constraints 30Strategy 28Small Business 26Healthcare 20Operations 18Practical Tips 16Medical Devices 9Leadership 8Case Studies 4Government 3Workforce 3
- The Clipboard and the Whole Picture
· Healthcare, Small Business, Operations
Most people would rather fill out intake forms at home, on their own schedule. A practice that makes that easy shows patients it respects their time, and that is a chance to win more of them.
- Check the Document Before the Error Travels
· AI, Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Government
Public institutions should verify consequential documents before circulation, using evidence-backed adversarial AI review and accountable human approval.
- What I Keep Seeing in Healthcare Financial Assistance Policies
· Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Strategy, Leadership
When I read financial assistance policies, I keep finding the same three conflicts. They are not paperwork problems. They are structural problems that trap staff and patients in impossible choices.
- After the First Session
· AI, Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Strategy
A board commissioner and an AI sit alone in an empty conference room and talk honestly about what just happened and why. Episode 06 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series.
- The First Session
· AI, Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Operations
Twelve people walk into a working group carrying separate problems and walk out carrying a shared one. Episode 05 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series.
- Where Does the Money Come From?
A public hospital loses tens of millions a year. Taxpayers cover the gap. But where does the taxpayers' money come from? Following that thread leads to a reframe that might change the conversation.
- Is Cost Accounting Accelerating Your Decline?
· Healthcare, Operations, Strategy
A question for CFOs at Washington State critical access hospitals: could standard cost allocation be distorting your service line decisions at exactly the wrong time?
- After the Meeting
· AI, Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Workforce
A Chief Nursing Officer processes what happened at the board meeting -- and discovers that the structural conflicts she has been managing for years have a name. Episode 02 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series.
- The Other Calculation
· AI, Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Operations
A hospital CFO runs the same numbers two ways and gets answers that disagree by a factor of five. Episode 04 of the Cascade Valley audio drama series.
- The Compass and the Toolkit: Why Healthcare Needs Both TOC and Lean
· Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Operations
Healthcare has adopted Lean almost exclusively for process improvement, but the Theory of Constraints answers the question Lean cannot: where should you focus? Using both together produces dramatically better results.
- The Meeting That Went Differently
· AI, Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Strategy
A dramatized community hospital board meeting — fictional health system, real governance dynamics — showing what changes when an AI has a seat at the table.
- The Meeting That Could Not Have Gone Differently
· AI, Healthcare, Strategy, Leadership
Why good people in well-run hospitals still end up in the wrong conversation, and what a structural fix might look like.
- The Cath Lab Is Empty at 2 AM
· Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Strategy
Why smart, well-run organizations reliably get stuck on solvable problems, and what tribal dynamics and cognitive limits have to do with it.
- AI-Facilitated Constraint Resolution for Healthcare Systems
· AI, Theory of Constraints, Healthcare, Strategy
How AI can dissolve complex multi-stakeholder conflicts by surfacing hidden assumptions, not by replacing human judgment.
- The Post-Acute Care Plan: A Proactive Approach to Discharge Readiness
· Healthcare, Operations, Strategy
A concept for addressing the complex discharge problem at its source—by capturing discharge-relevant information during routine primary care, before any hospitalization occurs.
- Why Healthcare Is So Stuck
Six chronic healthcare frustrations — long wait times, expensive insurance, claim denials, hiring difficulties, tax levies, and burnout — traced to a single root cause using Theory of Constraints analysis.
- Why Burnout Persists
Healthcare protects staff from radiation but expects unlimited psychological trauma absorption. This four-part series maps the structural conflict behind provider burnout using Theory of Constraints and proposes systemic solutions beyond resilience training.
- The Physics of Patient Flow: Why 'Discharge Planning' Is a Mathematical Impossibility
Trying to plan a complex discharge at the moment of exit violates the basic physics of flow. Here is why the process must move upstream.
- The Burnout Antidote: Voice Agents Transform Healthcare's Most Painful Conversations
· AI, Healthcare
Discover how voice agents transform healthcare's most painful conversations by removing emotional friction from insurance claims, patient billing, and administrative battles that burn out staff and traumatize patients.
- Architecting Hospital Care
Why an outsider's perspective is a healthcare system architect's greatest asset — how decades in embedded systems engineering, Theory of Constraints, and AI provide a different lens on hospital operational challenges.