title: Improving healthcare using Lean processes.
abstract: For more than a decade, healthcare organizations across Canada have been using Lean management tools to improve care processes, reduce preventable adverse events, increase patient satisfaction and create better work environments. The largest system-wide effort in Canada, and perhaps anywhere, is currently under way in Saskatchewan. The jury is still out on whether Lean efforts in that province, or elsewhere in Canada, are robust enough to transform current delivery systems and sustain new levels of performance. This issue of Healthcare Quarterly features several articles that provide a perspective on Lean methods in healthcare.
authors.affiliation: Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, in Toronto, Ontario. He is also the editor-in-chief of Healthcare Quarterly.
authors.forename: G Ross
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000458:organization & administration