State of research and future research tendencies in lean healthcare: a bibliometric analysis

The application of Lean Philosophy in a healthcare environment is still a relatively new field of research, but there already exists a considerable amount of literature on the topic. This article structures, analyzes and interprets the data of articles on Lean Healthcare from 2002 through 2015 bibliometrically. The databases used in order to realize the analysis are the main sources for citation data available: Elsevier’s Scopus and Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science. The scientific contribution of this article lies in structuring the literature on Lean Healthcare and summarizing future research proposals. Thereby it encourages the review and consolidation of existing directions in this field of research and the exploration of new ones. With respect to the article’s applied contribution it helps hospitals and professionals which want to apply Lean Healthcare to deal with uncertainties and challenges before or during its implementation by granting easy access to the literature. It also allows adapting suitable findings of major publications for the practical implementation with the goal to improve the patient experience. As results of this bibliometric analysis it was found that J.E. Bassham and D.I. Ben-Tovim share the first place as most cited authors in Lean Healthcare and the Linköpings Universitet is the most cited institution. With respect to countries, the United States take the first rank. The most cited article is Trends and approaches in lean healthcare by L. Brandão de Souza which was published in the most cited journal, namely Leadership in Health Services. Four main tendencies for future research possibilities in Lean Healthcare were identified: Evaluate the implementation; Amplify basic knowledge; Investigate challenges and success stories; Expand the focus.