An application of Deming's management philosophy to healthcare — a domain he saw as particularly afflicted by the deadly diseases of Western management. Deming argues that hospitals, like factories, are systems, and that most quality problems in healthcare are system problems, not individual clinician failures. The paper applies the 14 Points to hospital management, critiques the use of numerical targets and rankings in healthcare, and argues for reduction of variation in clinical processes. This paper anticipated by decades the patient safety and quality improvement movements that would transform American healthcare in the 2000s. Free full PDF from Deming Institute.