Lean Six Sigma for Service

SUCCESS STORY #4 Stanford Hospital and Clinics:At the forefront of the quality revolution

Stanford Hospital and Clinics (Stanford) was applying the basic elements of Lean and Six Sigma long before those terms were invented. Their use of quality and process principles began in the mid-1980s, when changes in Medicare reimbursements and the advent of HMOs meant that healthcare providers had to start balancing fiscal concerns with their primary mission of providing high-quality patient care.

The pressures that sparked Stanford to adopt what was then Total Quality Management (TQM) have continued to intensify. For one thing, changes in technology have made medicine an increasingly capital-intensive enterprise. At the same time, revenue sources continue ...