Assembly Lines in Operating Rooms

Assembly Lines in Operating Rooms

April 13, 2019
Corinne M. Karuppan, Ph.D.

Dr. Devi Shetty, a cardiac surgeon, has been on a mission to provide even the poorest of the poor with quality, affordable healthcare.

At Narayana Health, a chain of hospitals in India, surgeons perform the most complicated procedures at a tiny fraction of what it costs in the US. Its ability to do so partly lies in the use of well-known operations principles to promote process efficiency.

Video Spotlights:

This post is based on the Bloomberg article, The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper, by A. Altstedter, March 25, 2019; the YouTube video, Making Healthcare Affordable – PBS coverage on Narayana Health & Dr.Devi Shetty, by Narayana Health, August 16, 2017; and the Aljazeera video, Indian Hospital: Episode 1, by P. Roy, May 4, 2012. Image source: Shutterstock/lenetstan

Discussion Questions:

1. Describe Narayana’s achievements in health care delivery. Justify with examples.

Guidance: Achievements include greater access to healthcare with higher volumes of patients (“huge volumes help surgeons quickly develop proficiency”, six times more procedures per surgeon); high quality (mortality rates comparable to or below those in the Continue reading →

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