Author Archive for robertgerst
Expert calls out Alberta Health
Alberta may be trumpeting the efficiency of our centralized health-care superboard but a keynote speaker plans to tell a national conference this month that Alberta’s experiment has been disastrous. The bigger-is-better, command-and-control model has failed in Alberta and other provinces shouldn’t replicate it, warns management consultant Robert Gerst. “Alberta is an ideal case study of
Decline of Health Services in Alberta Paper a Keynote Presentation at Healthcare Efficiency Conference
The Decline of Health Services in Alberta, The Triumph of Professional over Real Management is gaining considerable attention. John Seddon highlighted the paper in Vanguard Consulting Group’s newsletter providing both a link and a recommendation. Downloads from Europe nearly crashed our server. The paper will form the basis of a keynote presentation by Robert Gerst
Converge Newsletter
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The Cult of Statistical Significance – Simplified
Converge Consulting Group clients have heard us talk about the misuse of statistical significance testing, specifically, using statistical significance as a test for practical importance or material significance. This is the reason why so much employee, customer and operational research gets the answers so wrong, so often, amounting to little more, and often less, than junk
U. S. Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects ‘Statistical Significance’
Demonstrating both common sense and scientific reasoning, on March 22, the United States Supreme Court unanimously rejected arguments that materiality can be defined using statistical significance. This is a lesson that any organization conducting employee, customer and operational research should learn and one made repeatadly by Converge Consulting Group . . . Statistical significance is not a
The Decline of Health Services in Alberta
The Triumph of Professional over Real Management The past 20 years have seen a steady decline in the provision of health services to Albertans. Waiting times for surgeries, diagnostic services and emergency room visits is increasing, costs are escalating and quality of care has remained constant at best. A day doesn’t go by without the
Inspections and Audits
Developing a cost effective approach Some organizations equate quality with the level of inspection. The greater the number of inspections, checks, audits or evaluations, the greater the level of quality that is assumed to be in the final product or service. Unfortunately for these organizations, just the opposite is true. Quality assurance is only required when processes
Analyzing WCB Injury Rate Data
How to properly analyze and interpret Alberta injury rate data On October 01, 2010, the Alberta Government publically released workplace injury & fatality records. This made the Province the first in Canada to release a comprehensive list. Anyone can now access information about worksite injuries and fatalities involving more than 140,000 employers insured by the Workers
Why the Best Companies to Work For are Likely the Worst
Being labelled one of the Best Companies to Work For is great public and employee relations. It is also bad management. It is a sign that the company is more concerned with image than with reality. That’s not a good thing for either employees or the company. Among other things, it means the company will
Health Quality Council of Alberta Report is Junk Science
Originally Published at the Quality Council of Alberta The Health Quality Council of Alberta report: The Urban and Regional Emergency Department Patient Experience Report 2009, represents a significant step backward for the Quality movement in Alberta. This, because the methodology is so flawed, none of the facts or statistics offered can, or should, be taken
The New Management Thinking
Managers are being flooded by a host of management ideas and models — Six Sigma, process re-engineering, Lean Enterprise, Lean Production, operational excellence, quality management, value chain analysis, business process redesign, process outcomes management and performance measurement. Whatever else these things are intended to produce, confusion is definitely a by-product. To help work through the
Voice of the Employee FAQ
More and more organizations are abandoning traditional survey research in favour of Voice of the Customer (VoC) or Voice of the Employee (VoE) methods. This trend has accelerated with recent attacks by the scientific/statistical community on the widespread misapplication of traditional survey research (including misuse of statistical significance) and flagrant overreaching, especially when making comparisons
Response to The Fraser Institute’s Report Card on Alberta Hospitals
On Thursday, June 18, The Fraser Institute released the Hospital Report Card Alberta 2009. The purpose of the Report Card, according to the report’s authors is: to help patients choose the best hospital for their inpatient care by providing them with information on the performance of acute-care hospitals in Alberta. The Report Card is primarily concerned
Lean Certification Standards from ASQ/Shingo Prize
The American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the Shingo Prize recently announced their joint Lean Certification Book of Knowledge (BoK). Now that these standards are out, they provide an important benchmark against which organizations can examine their existing Lean training and development programs. For those experienced with Lean, much of the content will be familiar. There are
Converge Knowldege Base / Blog
Hello and welcome to our Knowldege Base / Blog. We hope this is the start of something important. Converge has always had a reputation for excellence. A reputation evidenced in part by our publications in peer reviewed journals, conference appearances, published books and of course, in the work we do. An issue for us has
Flexibility, The Third Dimension to Performance
A year ago, businesses were planning for major expansion. Now, attention has turned to how to weather a recession. Soon, expansion plans will be back. It is difficult to keep up. Actually, it is impossible. Is there better evidence that the key to survival is not in prediction or forecasting? After all, who do you
Systems Thinking and the Health Care System
Originally Published as a Converge Newsletter for Operational Excellence (OpX) In response to the demand for pieces referenced in The Decline of Health Services in Alberta, we have republished this article from 2004. Health care, like other industries, is seeking ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness. In Canada, this has taken on a new urgency
