Even if these problems are addressed and lean delivers on
its promises, the challenges to increasing the role of lean
thinking are daunting. They require no less than the redesign
of the health care system as we now see it. Perseverance,
high quality leadership, dedicated professionals and patience
are surely needed. Scepticism and resistance will be high,
success not guaranteed. Organizations may think twice
before embracing on such a journey, or worse, superficially
implement lean thinking, adding to existing resistance and
making it more difficult to improve health care in the long
term.
Overall, we support the possibilities lean thinking offers to
improve health care. Lean is a hands-on improvement
method, in line with suggestions made by leading authors on
how to improve health care systems worldwide [38]. Yet, if
lean thinking over the next decades will be hailed as the
‘machine that changed the [health care] world’ [39], more rigorous
and balanced research and reporting is needed.