The healthcare industry is has faced several challenges making it a subject to quality improvement. Medical practitioners are advocating for change and some of them have proposed to standardize healthcare. Many of them have reasoned that since standardization has worked well for other sectors such as manufacturing industries, therefore, the same should happen in the healthcare sector (Upshaw-Owens, 2019). However, others have argued that the health sector is unique and far much different from others such as the manufacturing and marketing industries. In a manufacturing company (like a car company), standardization is dictated by the quality of sales and an increase in demand for a commodity. However, the healthcare system is more complicated, for instance, for a standardized concept to work since it must be unquestionably accepted by healthcare stakeholders and patients all over the world (Upshaw-Owens, 2019). This paper provides an in-depth discussion of quality improvement to provide evidence that the standardized system (as done in manufacturing) can be applied in the healthcare sector.

Position

The world is facing economic crossroads which could be witnessed even in the healthcare industry. Medical practitioners and scientists are thinking about ways to deliver better and adequate care at low costs (Kurth & Morton, 2013). The present author’s position is that the principles applied in the manufacturing industry can apply well in the healthcare system. Apparently, these standardized principles used in manufacturing can promote quality care by removing unnecessary work for care providers to enable them to have enough time with their patients. Also, standardized care improves the cost by ensuring that care providers adhere to the best medical practices (Suhonen et al., 2019). Therefore, these principles are not as harmful to individualized care as speculated by its opposers. To promote standardized care, healthcare management and providers must work in collaboration to ensure patients receive quality care. Therefore, the type of standardized process of quality improvement found in the manufacturing industry can work in the healthcare system to improve patients’ outcomes