Last week I talked about the need to remove waste from your processes to stay competitive. I briefly mentioned the flawed, post-process inspection the government was proposing for healthcare process improvement. A recent article in Business Week presents even more evidence of the need to remove waste from this last vestige of cost-plus business in the U.S.
The article states, “As much as $500 billion of the $2.2 trillion spent on health care each year is wasted on duplicate processes, bad coordination, and out-of-date scheduling, according to a GE estimate based on data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.” According to Jan De Witte, CEO of GE’s Healthcare IT unit, “It’s generally accepted that for every $100 spent on health care, $20 or more is waste.”
That is stunning … at least to me. Could your business survive if you wasted at least 20% of your efforts? Removing waste, Lean Thinking, is mandatory in today’s global economy … regardless of your industry.
Mitch
