KaiNexus Executive’s Book “Healthcare Kaizen” Receives Shingo Research Award

DALLAS - June 3, 2013 - PRLog -- DALLAS – KaiNexus, a web and iOS-based software company that “makes improvement easier” for nearly twenty healthcare organizations across the United States, announced today that a book by the company’s chief improvement officer, Mark Graban, has been award the prestigious Shingo Professional Publication and Research Award.

The book, titled Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements, was co-authored by Joseph E. Swartz and was published in 2012 by Productivity Press.

KaiNexus and the company’s CEO, Gregory Jacobson, MD were highlighted in two sections of the book, including a discussion of electronic systems, like KaiNexus, for the management and sharing of healthcare improvement ideas across a large organization.

Dr. Jacobson commented, “Healthcare Kaizen is such a great resource for organizations that want a practical guide to help them launch their Kaizen program.  It's almost like having a coach with you every step of the way.  I wish this book had been written when I was developing and implementing our Kaizen program a few years back at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.”

Graban added, “It is a great honor to again receive this recognition from the Shingo Prize Organization, after earlier receiving this award for my first book, Lean Hospitals. It is also gratifying to see Kaizen methods, as described in our book, being embraced by healthcare organizations around the world, as we all work together toward improved quality and lower cost in our health systems.”

The KaiNexus software platform, which is based upon the proven improvement principles of “kaizen,” has been proven to assist in organizations’ continued innovation and improvement efforts by identifying and implementing a large number of small, low-cost, low-risk ideas that are identified and implemented primarily by front-line staff.  Additionally, KaiNexus has modules to manage “kaizen events” and larger-scale Lean projects.

KaiNexus' technology is intended to reduce unnecessary costs accrued by the United States health care system, which squanders $750 billion a year – roughly 30 cents of every medicinal dollar – through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, according to a report published last year by the Institute of Medicine. KaiNexus is also currently pursuing deals with health systems in Europe, as the cost and quality problems faced by the American health system are also a major issue in other countries.          

To read more about the Shingo Professional Publication and Research Award, visit http://www.shingoprize.org/research-award.html. To learn more about the book Healthcare Kaizen, visit the book’s website at http://www.hckaizen.com.

About KaiNexus

Founded in 2009, KaiNexus “makes improvement easier (http://kainexus.com/home.html)” for healthcare by facilitating communication throughout the entire organization with its web-based technology.  KaiNexus helps initiate, manage, and spread ideas that come from clinicians and front-line staff, streamlining the management process required for continuous improvement to thrive.  It is built for the realities of today’s complex healthcare organizations, helping better facilitate staff and physician-driven continuous improvement efforts.

The KaiNexus platform has been in use by multiple departments throughout the Vanderbilt University Medical Center since early 2011, after they participated in the development of early versions of the software, starting in 2005.   KaiNexus is now in use in fifteen healthcare organizations, including University of North Carolina Health Care System, University of Michigan Health System, Presbyterian Healthcare Services (New Mexico), Cook Children’s Health System, and Centra Health, as well as a trucking and logistics company.

For more information, visit http://www.KaiNexus.com or find KaiNexus on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Note to Editors

Gregory Jacobson MD, Co-Founder and CEO of KaiNexus, graduated from Washington University in St Louis in 1997 with a BS in Biology.  He attended Baylor College of Medicine from 1997 to 2001.  From 2001 to 2004, he completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he then stayed on as faculty.  Starting in 2004, it was his observation and research of operational inefficiencies and unrealized improvement opportunities that resulted in the creation of a rudimentary software tool at VUMC and, ultimately, the founding of KaiNexus. Jacobson is co-author of “Kaizen: A Method of Process Improvement in the Emergency Department, (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1553-2712.2009.00580.x/abstract)” published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine.

Contact Information:

Gregory Jacobson, MD

Website: www.KaiNexus.com

Email: info@KaiNexus.com

Phone: (469) 454-8055