BMJ 2001;322:1257-1258 ( 26 May )

Editorials

Redesigning health care

Radical redesign is a way to radically improve

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A decade or so ago car manufacturers completely transformed the way they made motor cars: they stopped stockpiling components and supplied them "just in time"; they drastically reduced the types of components such as subframes and engines; they worked closely with their suppliers on quality and timeliness instead of beating them down on price; and they eliminated waste by making all workers responsible for quality, not just inspectors. As a result new models took less time to develop, their quality improved, and cars could be made to order for each customer. At the same time productivity improved and costs fell.¹ Since then people in health care have realised that their service has a long way to go to match the performance of other manufacturing and service industries. Report after report, from country after country, has documented the size of the gap between the best evidence based care that could be . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Doing a small number of things well rather than a lot of things badly

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bmj.com, 26 May 2001 [Full text]

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bmj.com, 30 May 2001 [Full text]

Redesigning health care

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