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

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