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Books

General operations management books about improving processes:

Operations management, Slack Chambers Harrison Harland Harrison and Johnstone, 2nd Edition FT Pitman publishing, ISBN 0273-626688-4. (The text that the majority of business students use. Packed with case studies and worked examples).

The 80 20 Principle, Richard Koch, The secret of achieving more with less, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1 st edition 2000, ISBN 1-85788-168-0

Theory of constraints, Eliyahu M Goldratt The Goal, Eliyahu M Goldratt and Jeff Cox, Gower Press, Second Edition 1999 ISBN 0-566-07418–4 (Theory of constraints is an important and significant way of thinking about process bottlenecks in relation to variation in flow. The Goal is a novel that explains it.)

"Three wins..." Simon Dodds ISBN: 1-904235-54-9 Publisher: Kingsham Press, www.akdpress.com Simon Dodds is a vascular surgeon at Good Hope Hospital UK who has redesigned outpatient and inpatient services to benefit patients, staff and managers ‘3 wins’. He explains the process for problem solving that prevents the ‘win loose’ scenario’ and how to go about it. This involves helping every one in the service to understand and manage the constraints in the system.

Lean thinking:

Lean thinking is the philosophy by which processes are redesigned to meet the customer demand exactly without the need for ‘stock’, inventory, work in process or waiting lists. This is about looking for the waste in the process that makes or processes stuff that the customer or patient doesn’t want. Useful web page www.leanuk.org 

Lean Thinking, James Womack and Daniel Jones, Touchstone Books, ISBN 0-684-81976-7

The Toyota Way Jeffrey K Liker, McGraw Hill, ISBN 007 139 231 -9

Lean Lexicon – Lean Enterprise Institute (defines all the terms used to describe processes in Lean Thinking)

Learning to See – Mike Rother and John Shook. ISBN: 0-9667843-0-8 www.lean.org/BookStore/ProductCatalog.cfm This book is a working guide to process mapping, value stream mapping and exposing the waste in processes.

Breaking the constraints to world class performance, H William Dettmer, American Association for Quality, 1 st edition 1998, ISBN 0-87389-437-5

Fourth Generation Management, Brian L Joiner, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-032715-7

Books about systems theory applied to social systems:

The 5th Discipline and The 5th Discipline Field Guide, Peter Senge, Nicholas Brealey publishing, ISBN 1-85788-069-9

The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, Abacus, ISBN 0-349-11346-7  

Queuing theory:

Queuing Methods for Services and Manufacturing, Randall Hall  

Statistical Process Control Books:

"Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos (2nd Edition)", Donald J. Wheeler; SPC Press. ISBN 00-945320-35-3 A good introducion for anyone wanting to understand the basics of performance management and the impact it has on human behaviour.

Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control, Walter A. Shewhart, W. Edwards Deming ( the original text)

"Understanding Statistical Process Control", Donald J. Wheeler, David S. Chambers; SPC Press, ISBN 0-945320-13-2 ( the big textbook…)

“Statistical Process Control In The Office”, Mal Owen & John Morgan, Greenfield Publishing, ISBN 0-9523328-4-1

Measuring quality improvement in healthcare: A guide to statistical process control applications (1995), Raymond G Carey PhD and Robert C. Lloyd PhD, ISBN 0-527-76293-8

Statistical process control for healthcare (2002), Marilyn K Hart , Robert K Hart Duxbury Thompson Learning, www.Duxbury.com, ISB 0-534-37865-X

Quality Improvement: Practical application for medical group practice second edition. Davis Balustracci Jr MA and Jeanine L Barlow MPH, published by Centre of Research in Ambulatory Healh care Administracion 104 Inverness Terrace east Englewood, Colorado, ISBN 1-56829-015-2

Papers

Decoding the DNA of the Toyota production system: Steven Spear and H Kent Bowen, Harvard Business Review 1999, reprint 99505  

Going Lean in Healthcare , Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2005 reprints from www.ihi.org  

Hospitals get serious about operations, The McKinsey Quarterly 2001 No.2 Paul D Mango and Louis A Shapiro

Enhancement of Care: A Tool to Optimize Patient Flow Patterns in a Community Hospital The Joint Commission Journal on Quality.Improvement Volume 28 p.31, John D. Rozich, MD, PhD, MBA and Roger K. Resar, MD, Address for Correspondence and Reprints: John D. Rozich, Luther Midelfort, Mayo Health System, Eau Claire, WI 54703 (715)-838-3311, rozich.john@mayo.edu

Modernising the NHS: Patient care: access. Mark Murray, EDUCATION AND DEBATE, BMJ 2000; 320: 1594-1596. [Full text]

Reducing waiting times in the NHS: is lack of capacity the problem? Silvester, Bevan, Lendon, Walley, Steyn, Clinician in Management Dec 2004

Why variation reduction is not everything: a new paradigm for service operations, 1995 Curtis P Mc Laughlin, Key note presentation for International Research Symposium on Services management Dorset Business School, Kenan-Flager Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA  

Designed for Deficits? Kate Silvester, Healthcare Finance, April 2005

Understanding the deficit , Kate Silvester and Paul Walley, Healthcare Finance, June 2005  

Websites

The Lean Institute as run by Prof Dan Jones : www.leanuk.org. There are lots of useful Lean books recommended here too. Lots of other websites is you search under Lean and Healthcare.

www.modern.nhs.uk Look under Cancer for Guides to improving endoscopy and radiology, Theatre and Outpatient service improvement guides also available.

'A step by step guide to improving outpatient services' at www.doh.gov.uk (under publications) tells you how to start tackling a backlog in outpatients but the principles apply at a bottleneck anywhere.

Department of Health www.doh.gov.uk  

Institute of Healthcare Improvement www.ihi.org This is a not for profit organisation set up by Professor Don Berwick and based in Boston. They help set up and run many collaborative style programmes across the USA and world wide. They have a dynamic web site with information about improvement programmes and several case studies.