Testimonials and Past Projects

‘I have had the pleasure of working with Karen during her stay in the U.S.  Karen is a rare individual; extremely passionate, committed and focused on patient- centered improvement in Quality and safety. She easily engaged staff, stimulated them to think creatively and was able to walk through the steps of Lean Thinking in a way that was not threatening, but rather empowering for frontline staff.

Karen is exceptionally bright and motivated, politically quite sensitive, and recognizes the complexities of large organizations. She has a talent for asking the tough questions in a way that demonstrates sensitivity and respect, but causing assumptions to be challenged and change facilitated.
Karen has a breadth of experience that allows her to look deep into organizations for opportunities that might improve the function of frontline staff. Interpersonally she has been an absolute pleasure to work with.

Dr Mike Apkon MD, PhD, Vice President & Executive Director
Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital., Connecticut, US

Click here to see project we did for Dr Apkon

It has been my pleasure to know and work with Karen during her recent residence in the United States. Her enthusiasm is infectious and she is a role model for colleagues, She would be a tremendous resource for your staff in that her leadership, commitment and dedication coupled with the quality of her work would make her an invaluable asset to any healthcare team.

Dr Susan L Davis, R.N, Ed.D., President and CEO, St Vincents Medical Center, Connecticut, U.S.

Karen Walker sits at the confluence of three very important points in the healthcare compass: she is a nurse and understands front-line, hands on care; she is a highly qualified manager with a range of experience across healthcare; and she brings perspective and knowledge from overseas.  A unique blend of practical, academic and frontline experience.  For my money, she is the Queen-of-Lean!

Roy Lilley, UK NHS Writer, Broadcaster, Commentator and Conference Speaker

'Karen was chosen by the executives as the Trusts Lean Coach, over some of the more well known commercial companies,  because of her approach and  extensive health service and lean experience. Karen is helping us to turn our theoretical  lean knowledge into practical events and a deliverable strategy and improvements'

Joanne Joynes, Head of Service Improvement and Redesign, Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust

Karen and her teams’ enthusiasm, expert advice and passion for improvement ensure that we broke new ground in rapid service improvement and continue our development of a LEAN culture’

Faye Swanson, Deputy Director of Performance at South Essex Partnership Foundation Trust

Click here to see project we did for Faye Swanson

Some of our projects past and present…

Various interventions some of which included reopening rarely used treatment rooms, clearly redefining standard work for all involved in the process, relocating equipment, rescheduling some of the Dr.s hours and reclassifying some of the patient needs profiles ensured a successful outcome and the 9 minute target was achieved.

2) ‘More Time for Care’ was the objective of a project Karen facilitated at Bridgeport Hospital, Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut. The aim was to release time from non direct patient duties for front line staff to be transferred and increase time being spent directly caring for the patient at their bedside. A target of putting 4 hours of Nursing Time (in 24 hours) was set by the CEO.

Following a complex data collection exercise the    reviewing, removing non- value added activities   from key processes, and redesigning them, as well as optimising the organization of the workspace environment, helped the team achieve a result of releasing 16 hours of more time for care. This was hugely successful with patients and their relatives, as well as staff from all disciplines involved. The project won a Yale Quality Improvement Award 2007/08.

3) ‘Removing defects from the medications availability’ process at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, Connecticut.The aim of this project was to have the right medication, in the right dosage, for the right child available at the time it was required to be administered by the nurse/ clinician.

There are many complexities in dispensing and distributing medications in such a large organisation.

The project team (in which Karen was a facilitator) collected enormous amounts of data on which redesigns of the process were based. Elements such as stock control, patient safety and error prevention were also reviewed, and the gains from this project are being spread throughout the organization. This project was awarded a US National Childrens’ Hospitals Quality Improvement Award 2008.

4) ‘Releasing Time for Care’ was the aim of a Lean project at South Essex Partnership Trust, a large Mental Health Foundation Trust in the UK.

This project was based on an acute assessment unit caring for patients with both organic and functional illnesses.
Project participants redesigned their key processes and achieved a very successful outcome of releasing 53 hours (in a week) for more time to be involved in direct face to face patient care. This made a major impact on the team involved, was an excellent team building exercise and significantly boosted morale. The feedback from patients and their relatives was excellent, and a campaign is underway to spread the gains from this project to other wards in the organization.

Some other projects include/ have included:

• The HR recruitment process in a large multi site acute hospital,
•  The prevention of nosocomial ( hospital- acquired) pressure sores in an acute hospital
• The discharge process in a large acute hospital
• The referral process- from GPs to a Mental Healthcare organisation’s assessment team