Lake Superior College Receives Minnesota Job Skills Partnership Grant
Funds will go toward “Lean Health”? training at SMDC Health System
A major state grant promises to increase efficiency, enhance quality and improve employee satisfaction at the region’s largest health care system. The Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) has awarded nearly $400,000 to Lake Superior College to develop “Lean Health”? training for SMDC Health System. Itasca Community College will also take part in the project as an instructional partner.
A grant signing ceremony celebrated this accomplishment on Tuesday, May 29, 2007. Lake Superior College President Kathleen Nelson and SMDC Chief Administrative Officer John Smylie discussed the benefits for their organizations and the community.
John Smylie, Kathleen Nelson and Paul Moe, representing the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership, formalized the grant funding by signing a contract.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for our employees and our patients,”? Smylie says. “With the excellent training from Lake Superior College, we will be better positioned to meet the workforce challenges of the future.”?
The Minnesota Job Skills Partnership acts as a catalyst between business and education in developing cooperative training projects that provide new-job training or retraining of existing employees. MJSP grants are given to educational institutions with businesses as partners.
Over the course of the three-year grant, more than 200 SMDC employees will learn the Lean Health principles and share them across the health system. By eliminating unnecessary steps and having the right resources at the right time, employees will be more satisfied with their work. Patients will ultimately benefit from a more effective and efficient health care provider.
“SMDC is implementing Lean Health as an answer to the increasing pressure being put on the industry to serve their clients faster, while improving quality and reducing costs,”? Nelson says.
Health care experts around the country are embracing the Lean Health concept, which was originally based on the Toyota production system for improving manufacturing processes. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System is working with several healthcare institutions around the state to implement these techniques, including Park Nicollet Health Services, the Mayo Clinic and Grand Itasca Hospital.
SMDC has already applied these concepts in a few areas around the health system. One initiative has improved the efficiency of preparing patients for surgery once they get into the operating room at St. Mary’s Medical Center. These efforts have helped surgery scheduling to be smoother and on time.
Health system leaders are excited that this collaboration with LSC will allow them to incorporate these techniques across all areas of patient care. And by developing this comprehensive curriculum, Lake Superior College will be able to offer the “Lean”? training to other local companies in the future, creating community benefits for years to come.
A press release from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development is available at: http://www.deed.state.mn.us/news/release/2007/wd29May07mjsp.htm