Atul Gawande, a doctor in Boston and a writer for The New Yorker, wrote the best piece on health care I’ve read all year. Besides telling a good story, he goes into what I dub, “The Cheesecake Factory Way.” The restaurant chain combines good process, quality control, teaching, and scale to produce meals from a menu of 308 dinner items for over 80 million people yearly at its 160 restaurants.

This may not be what pops into your head when you think of “innovation,” but designing and institutionalizing an effective system makes for a pleasant, consistent eating experience. How The Cheesecake Factory approaches food could be the future of American health care. Here are some lessons we can learn from The Cheesecake Factory on improving health care.

1. Process

Each Cheesecake Factory is essentially a made-from-scratch meal factory where process is critical. Refrigerators and prep stations in the back of the kitchen supply the manufacturing “floor”&mdash ;the grills and griddles--with ingredients. Computers and touch screens above the grills show the cooks what has been ordered, the recipe, what the final dish should look like, and cooking times.

Great points.  Go read the rest.

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