These Kaizen forms and templates are shared to support your continuous improvement efforts. They are practical, field-tested tools used by healthcare organizations to capture ideas, document improvements, and support daily Kaizen.

You are encouraged to download, modify, and adapt these templates to fit your organization’s needs—in true Kaizen fashion, improve the templates themselves.

Kaizen Forms & Templates

We hope these downloads are helpful in your important improvement efforts. Feel free to modify and customize the templates to suit your needs — apply Kaizen to our Kaizen templates!

These templates are free to use. If you find them helpful, we ask that you consider the following:

Use them in your improvement work
Improve them—and let us know what you’ve learned
Consider our books to learn more about Kaizen in healthcare
Share a Kaizen example or reach out with questions
Share the Healthcare Kaizen website with colleagues

Thank you for being part of the Kaizen community.

Kaizen Idea Cards

What these are:
Kaizen Idea Cards are simple forms used by staff to capture improvement ideas as they notice problems in their daily work. They are designed to make it easy for anyone—clinical or non-clinical—to suggest small, low-cost, low-risk improvements.

These cards help shift improvement from “special projects” to everyday work by giving people a quick way to identify problems, propose changes, and start conversations with their leaders.

Idea Card / Kaizen Card template (.pptx) | (.pdf)

Version with the back side flipped (.pdf) — This was the Kaizen of a client of Mark’s!

Version with dotted lines for manual cutting (.pdf) — This was the result of a reader suggestion. Kaizen!

Kaizen Reports & Summaries

What these are:
Kaizen Reports (sometimes called summaries) are short, visual documents that capture what was improved, why it mattered, and what was learned. They are not meant to be formal reports, but simple storytelling tools that make improvement visible.

These templates help teams reflect on their Kaizen efforts, recognize the people involved, and share ideas so that good improvements can spread to other areas.

Quick and Easy Kaizen Report template (.pptx) | (.pdf)

Modified Version with Photo Boxes (.pptx) | (.pdf)

Kaizen Wall of Fame template (.pptx) | (.pdf)

A3 Problem-Solving Templates

A3 templates support structured problem-solving using Lean thinking and the scientific method. They help teams clarify a problem, understand current conditions, test changes using PDSA, and reflect on results.

These A3s are most useful for more complex problems that require deeper analysis, alignment across roles, or sustained follow-up—complementing daily Kaizen rather than replacing it.

Forms provided by the Lean Enterprise Institute

How to Use These Templates:

These tools are meant to support learning and improvement—not compliance or bureaucracy. Start simple, adapt them to your context, and improve the templates themselves as you learn what works best for your team.

Kaizen Forms & Templates for Continuous Improvement