--- title: "Insights: Healthcare | Common Sense Systems" url: https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/ description: "Articles by John Sambrook tagged Healthcare, newest first." --- [Insights](https://common-sense.com/insights/) # Healthcare 20 articles, newest first. [All](https://common-sense.com/insights/) [AI 33](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/)[Theory of Constraints 30](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/)[Strategy 28](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/)[Small Business 26](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/)[Healthcare 20](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/)[Operations 18](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/)[Practical Tips 16](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/practical-tips/)[Medical Devices 9](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/medical-devices/)[Leadership 8](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/leadership/)[Case Studies 4](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/case-studies/)[Government 3](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/government/)[Workforce 3](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/workforce/) - [The Clipboard and the Whole Picture](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-clipboard-and-the-whole-picture/) October 26, 2026 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Small Business](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/small-business/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/check-the-document-before-the-error-travels/) October 5, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Government](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/healthcare-financial-assistance-patterns/) June 9, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/), [Leadership](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/after-the-first-session/) March 18, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-first-session/) March 18, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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?](https://common-sense.com/insights/where-does-the-money-come-from/) March 18, 2026 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) 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?](https://common-sense.com/insights/is-cost-accounting-accelerating-your-decline/) March 11, 2026 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/after-the-meeting/) March 7, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Workforce](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-other-calculation/) March 7, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/compass-and-toolkit-toc-lean-healthcare/) March 4, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-meeting-that-went-differently/) March 2, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-meeting-that-could-not-have-gone-differently/) February 26, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/), [Leadership](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/the-cath-lab-is-empty-at-2am/) February 15, 2026 · [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/ai-facilitated-constraint-resolution/) February 9, 2026 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Theory of Constraints](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/theory-of-constraints/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/post-acute-care-plan-concept/) December 15, 2025 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/why-is-hc-so-stuck/) September 17, 2025 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Strategy](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/strategy/) 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](https://common-sense.com/insights/why-burnout-persists-series/) September 14, 2025 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/) 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](https://common-sense.com/insights/physics-of-patient-flow/) September 4, 2025 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/), [Operations](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/operations/) 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](https://common-sense.com/insights/burnout-antidote-voice-agents/) August 17, 2025 · [AI](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/ai/), [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/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](https://common-sense.com/insights/architecting-hc/) August 9, 2025 · [Healthcare](https://common-sense.com/insights/tag/healthcare/) 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.