DPH Kaizen office outlines Lean achievements, new cross‑functional projects and workforce training

William Heughan, chief strategic and performance innovation officer, presented the Kaizen Promotion Office update to the San Francisco Health Commission on Oct. 6 and highlighted specific improvement stories, ongoing projects and planned workforce training designed to embed continuous‑improvement and equity principles across the department.

Heughan described three spotlighted projects. First, primary-care teams used Epic self-scheduling, template standardization and morning huddles to reduce wait times and improve access; staff focused on MyChart enrollment and tracking equity measures such as no‑show rates among Black/African American patients. "This was a massive and daunting overhaul," Kaizen fellow and physician Taylor Clark is quoted in the presentation, noting the value of Kaizen structure and team engagement.

Second, Laguna Honda teams pursued medication simplification with a goal to reduce medications per patient by roughly 7 percent. The project combined physician deprescribing, nursing-led reviews for high‑medication patients and pharmacy review to reduce unnecessary topical and PRN therapies. Heughan said one concrete result was a marked reduction in lotions and topical medications after nurse-led reviews.

Third, Kaizen promoted cross-functional initiatives including street-team integration, improving initiation of medications for opioid-use disorder (MOUD) in emergency settings, and enhancing DPH contract-management processes. He described a DPH fellowship and manager-training pipeline, A3 problem-solving adoption and an upcoming DPH Lean improvement certification tied to leadership development.

Commissioners praised the work and asked that Kaizen return with implementation outcomes. Heughan said the office will continue measuring results, scaling successful pilots and training leaders to sustain change.

Ending: Kaizen officials said they will return with additional outcome data and continue to expand fellowships, manager training and cross‑functional improvement projects across DPH.