Why Healthcare Leaders are looking Outside for Answers... 

Applied to hospitals, the term factory sounds like a metaphor for a mechanistic, uncaring environment. Nevertheless, a growing number of healthcare leaders are employing management ideas from manufacturing and other industries to make their facilities more cost-effective and at the same time, more responsive to the needs of patients, their families, and staff.  In fact,  these methods, Lean in particular, help organizations do more with less making them particularly applicable to today's healthcare challenges.   

Steve Read, VP Corporate Services and CFO of Brockville General Hospital in Ontario, draws on his background in the manufacturing sector as his organization adjusts to a tough fiscal environment. "The economy influences how governments choose to fund healthcare," says Read, "and right now the industry is going through a transformation where resources are tight and there's pressure on all aspects of the healthcare system to rethink their processes and rethink the way they operate." Read More