Foreword
I have now studied over 160 organizations in 16 countries in the last five years looking for the “Toyota of healthcare.” Unfortunately, I haven’t found it yet. But I have seen legitimate attempts at applying Lean principles in every type of healthcare setting. And this is a significant change since Mark Graban’s book was first published in 2008. As we have learned more about successful Lean transformations, we have been able to identify the core elements of that success.
That’s important because as we surge toward 20% of the U.S. gross domestic product being spent on healthcare, we now have a big problem that probably could have been avoided by Lean thinking, but now must be solved by it. Our status in the world economy depends on our ...
