Lean Management and Hospital Performance: Adoption vs. Implementation.

ABSTRACT Background : The Lean Management System is being adopted and implemented by an increasing number of US hospitals. Yet few studies have considered the impact of Lean on hospitalwide performance. Methods : A multivariate analysis was performed of the 2017 National Survey of Lean in US hospitals and 2018 publicly available data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services on ten quality/appropriateness of care, cost, and patient experience measures. Results : Hospital adoption of Lean was associated with higher Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) patient experience scores (b = 3.35; p Conclusions : Lean is an organizationwide sociotechnical performance improvement system. As such, the actual degree of implementation throughout the organization as opposed to mere adoption is, based on the present findings, more likely to be associated with positive hospital performance on at least some measures.