Healthcare Kaizen focuses on the principles and methods of daily continuous improvement, or Kaizen, for healthcare professionals and organizations. Kaizen is a Japanese word that means "change for the better," as popularized by Masaaki Imai in his 1986 book Kaizen: The Key to Japan s Competitive Success and through the books of Norman Bodek, both of whom contributed introductory material for this book.

Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award

In 1989, Dr. Donald M. Berwick, founder of the Institute for Healthcare...

Hospitals and health systems are facing many challenges, including shrinking reimbursements and the need to improve patient safety and quality. A growing number of healthcare organizations are turning to the Lean management system as an alternative to traditional cost cutting and layoffs. "Kaizen," which is translated from Japanese as "good change" or "change for the better," is a core pillar of the Lean strategy for today's best healthcare organizations.

Kaizen is a powerful approach for creating a continuously learning and continuously improving organizations. A Kaizen culture leads...

Organizations around the world are using Lean to redesign care and improve processes in a way that achieves and sustains meaningful results for patients, staff, physicians, and health systems. Lean Hospitals, Third Edition explains how to use the Lean methodology and mindsets to improve safety, quality, access, and morale while reducing costs, increasing capacity, and strengthening the long-term bottom line.

This updated edition of a Shingo Research Award recipient begins with an overview of Lean methods. It explains how Lean practices can help reduce various frustrations for...