About Naida Grunden

A professional writer for over 20 years, Naida Grunden has spent the last decade documenting Lean/Toyota improvements in the health care setting. Ms. Grunden also shares an interest in applying what has been learned in aviation safety and reliability to healthcare.

In addition to writing numerous general and academic articles, Ms. Grunden wrote the book, The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare, which describes the work of the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI), a small nonprofit organization, which began in 2001 to pilot Lean experiments in competing hospitals across Southwestern Pennsylvania. The effort produced some of the first genuine, on-the-ground evidence that a Toyota-based industrial model could work in health care.

As more hospitals in the U.S. and abroad begin to embrace the principles of “doing more with less,” Ms. Grunden continues to teach, speak, and write on the topic of Lean/Toyota in health care. She has become a nationally and internationally requested speaker on the topic of Toyota-based principles in health care.

Ms. Grunden holds a BA in English from California State University, East Bay and a secondary English teaching credential from California State University, San Francisco. She is a member of the American Medical Writers Association.

Clients have included...

Healthcare Performance Partners

Lean Healthcare West

Jewish Healthcare Foundation

Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative

Edwards LifeSciences

Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)

Wasdin Law LLC

Whatcom Alliance for Healthcare Access

St Joseph PeaceHealth

Global Links

Safety Reliability Methods

Mimi Falbo LLC