Chapter 2
Overview of Lean for Hospitals and Health Systems
What Is Lean?
Countless books have been written on Lean, creating many frameworks and definitions, some of which are shown in Table 2.1. It is difficult to have a single succinct, yet comprehensive, definition, but we can learn something from each definition. Lean is both a tool set and a management system. Lean is a method for continuous improvement and employee engagement. And, Lean is an approach that allows us to solve the problems that are important to us as leaders and as an organization.
One succinct definition used by many instructors at the Lean Enterprise Institute is: “Lean is a set of concepts, principles, and tools used to create and deliver the most value from the customers’ ...
