Product Overview

This case examines the transformation of the University of Virginia Health System (UVAHS) into a leader of operational excellence focused on both patient outcomes and health care team members' well-being with its signature quality improvement and safety program, Be Safe. The case provides opportunities for class discussions in several areas, including managing organizational change, understanding senior leadership in launching and implementing a major operational transformation, and applying Lean principles and methods in health care operations. It also exposes students to issues currently facing the health care industry, particularly from an academic hospital standpoint. It concentrates on the improvement activities led by Dr. Tracey Hoke, chief of quality and performance improvement for UVAHS, during the first two years of the Be Safe initiative to lay the foundation for future success in all aspects of patient care.

Learning Objectives

- To strengthen student understanding of best practices in performance-improvement leadership at all organizational levels when driving operational changes in a complex health care system. - To study the principles of Lean management and the use of Lean performance-management tools in settings where real-time problem solving and escalating of unresolved issues are mission-critical skills for all team members, including frontline providers, performance coaches, managers, and executive leaders. - To challenge students to analyze a major health system reorganization and consider what operational levers leaders could pull to ensure that clinical improvements implemented via Standard Work were being sustained across the board. What kind of new management infrastructure would be needed to run continuous improvements in a service line-oriented reorganization? How would UVAHS's culture, behaviors, and mindsets need to change?