Fail often to succeed sooner: adventures in innovation.

A new mom lies in bed in the Postpartum unit as a Kaiser Permanente (KP) Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) wheels in a TV/video cart so mom can watch an educational video about circumcision before her baby’s procedure. Just when the CNA plugs in the video, another staff member enters to complete the baby’s hearing screening. The CNA abruptly turns off the video and wheels the cart out of the room. The screener asks, “Has your baby been fed in the past hour? We want him restful and quiet for the hearing screen.” “No,” the mother replies, “I didn’t know that you were coming.” “I’m sorry,” the screener says, “that means I can’t perform the test now. I’ll have to come back.” She then leaves the room. The new mom missed the educational video and the baby missed his hearing screening; two clinicians wasted their time; and care and teaching for both mother and baby were delayed. Both caregivers will have to return unsure if the situation will repeat itself. This is one of many stories captured from across KP’s hospitals in the past two years of innovation projects using the methodology from a design firm called IDEO. Hospital staff generated many innovative ideas to address like situations using IDEO methodology. Based on the hospital staff’s ideas, a board and bedside guide was developed to help show a new mom her “Journey Home.” Surveys show that moms, family, and staff love it. It was also a real journey to create a final product, and it was done using IDEO’s Innovation Methodology. To better understand it and the steps leading up to the Journey Home tools, let’s start at the beginning ... Consider this. When refrigerators were invented, the people who delivered ice thought that they could compete if they just offered more services, lowered prices, and became more efficient. Not a single company that delivered ice went into the refrigeration business, and ice delivery services no longer exist. Wrigley’s chewing gum Fail Often To Succeed Sooner: Adventures in Innovation