Bio
Dan Schowengerdt is a former Senior Executive of an Integrated Health System who has converted his learning and skills into a consulting practice. His passion is facilitating the creation of improvement that is recognizable to the patient and sustainable by the health care organization.
His interest in health care improvement began while in graduate school studying Industrial Engineering and Health Care Administration. It grew and matured with his learning and application of Deming-based improvement methods, Six Sigma and the Toyota Production System, also referred to as Lean Production. He applies over 25 years of process improvement at all levels of health care from the point of service to managing cultural change at the executive level. He has a record of consistently improving the organizations he has lead and leaving behind transformational change.
For the majority of his career, Dan worked in the dynamic Minneapolis-St. Paul health care market. He held progressively more responsible roles within Park Nicollet Health Services including the role of senior operations executive of Methodist Hospital, a 426-bed community hospital, and the specialty departments of Park Nicollet Clinic, a multi-specialty group practice of 600 physicians. Responsibilities included process leadership of the Surgery Service Line at numerous practice sites—encompassing a patient’s entry at the surgeon’s clinic through surgery, hospitalization and their ultimate recovery.
At Park Nicollet, he was also an architect in the design and implementation of lean production. He received in-depth training in workflow analysis, and application of lean methods and principles to health care.
Dan further refined his learning of Lean Principles and skills with Lean Methods as Senior Consultant and Business Development Manager for Simpler Health Care Consulting until he launched Schowengerdt Consulting in 2007
In his consulting practice, Dan supports health care organizations to harness the wisdom within their ranks with proven techniques to deliver value. His style is one of a coach, who delights in working “on the line” with leaders, clinicians and staff to make fundamental and lasting improvements. To remain competent and strengthen his skills, he seeks out learning opportunities-formal and informal-and conducts his own P-D-S-A cycle after each client encounter, just as he requests of clients in their improvement work.