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Introduction to Lean
THE NEED FOR CHANGE
Perform an Internet search on Lean healthcare and within 0.29 sec there are 9,403,000 hits.
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A recent ASQ study shows
53 percent of hospitals report some level (minor, moderate, or full) of Lean deployment, and 42 percent
of hospitals report some level of Six Sigma deployment. Few hospitals participating in the study report
“full deployment” of either Lean (four percent of hospitals) or Six Sigma (eight percent). The reasons
that neither method has been deployed in hospitals include: the need for resources (59 percent of hos-
pitals), lack of information (41 percent), and leadership buy-in (30 percent). Ele ...