News

Denver Health Becomes Profitable After Using Toyota as a Template – Lean manufacturing has made Denver Health a model for public health care.

February 3, 2012 /

MATR Sponsor (view all)

Bear Paw Development Corporation is a private non-profit organization created for the purpose of administering programs to help improve regional economic conditions in Hill, Blaine, Liberty, Chouteau and Phillips Counties and the Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy's Indian Reservations.

FedEx. Microsoft. Toyota. Those were the companies that Patricia Gabow planned to use as a template for overhauling Denver Health, a health-care network in Colorado’s largest city.

Gabow has served as the head of the health group since the early 1990s, and about eight years ago, she began envisioning a new model based on private-sector practices. When Gabow pitched the idea, her staff balked at using automobile manufacturing or package delivery to teach doctors how to better serve a low-income, mostly minority population.

One co-worker, Gabow recalls, took her aside and told her it was "the craziest idea I’ve ever heard."

BY: Dylan Scott

Full Story: http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/gov-denver-health-becomes-profitable-after-using-toyota-as-a-template.html