Shouldice Hospital a Focused Factory in Health care
A top selling Harvard university case study, taught in over 500 universities worldwide.

How lean principles applied to health care can result in consistent achievement of excellent quality, superior outcomes, exceptional patient satisfaction and reduced costs. As an added value, no-cost, “self marketing” is provided by “apostles”.

Shouldice Hospital is an example of a health care delivery model, which significantly relieves pressure on the public health care system. Handling 33 % the volume of patients in Ontario requiring hernia surgery, the hospital saves the system upwards of 430 surgical OR days per year in downtime alone. This equates to volumes of wait time procedures filling the open space. The Canada Health Act dictates that health care must be affordable, accessible, and high quality. All of these main tenets are delivered in the Shouldice model.

his presentation examines the structure of the company, it’s fundamental philosophy and the basic steps to its operating plan. In doing so it demonstrates examples of hard savings as a result of process simplification and focus on core strategy.

Shouldice Hospital is a world, renowned center of excellence, focused exclusively on the repair of external abdominal wall hernias. It is equipped with five operating theatres, 89 semi private beds and facilities to support the needs of over 7500, acute care surgical patients per year. It employs over 150 staff members in a 70,000 sq ft building on 23 acres of landscaped grounds. Founded in 1945 by Dr. Edward Earle Shouldice, it has accounted for more than 300,000 hernia operations on patients from over 115 countries and maintains a 99% lifetime success rate. It has the lowest complication and infection rate in the world.

Daryl Urquhart, Director of Business Development, Principle

Daryl Urquhart is a graduate of York University and has been involved in the health care industry for over twenty-five years. As former national manager of Lanier Canada, his responsibilities included design and provision of high technology solutions for hospitals. He represents 50% of the shareholdings of the world renowned Shouldice Hospital, Canada’s largest, licensed, private hospital, and serves as a director on staff. He is currently president of KAML Consulting through which he provides management and marketing services. He has been an executive member of the Canadian College of Health Service Executives and is committed to the continuing improvement of health care delivery in Canada. Mr. Urquhart is a regular guest speaker in leading MBA programs across North America. His presentations include service delivery, operations management, health policy and marketing. He is a recipient of the gold standard Duke of Edinburgh award, presented personally by HRH Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh.