ABSTRACT
Introduction In the last chapter, we discussed a speci§c improvement methodology called Six Sigma. In this chapter, we focus on Lean. Even though Lean was originally thought of as a methodology of improvement in manufacturing, when applied to healthcare, Lean principles can eliminate many obstacles to excellence, such as cumbersome information technology systems, worker frustration, and inadvertent errors and oversights that can increase patient safety risks. Surprisingly few improvements require costly or sweeping high-tech “§xes.” Most often, simple, well designed interactions based on scienti§c observations and experiments bring nearly unimaginable improvement … fast. ˜e idea of Lean in any environment is to increase eŽciency and e›ectiveness in the organization and/ or process and to improve value to the customer.
