What's the difference between a hospital and a bottling factory?

Various commentators have argued for interventions to improve processes in the delivery of health care by drawing attention to experience and practice in other industries—for example, airlines or vehicle manufacturing. A common and natural objection to this line of argument is that health care is different, and so the potential to learn from other sectors is limited. We have sympathy with both claim and counterclaim and explore in this article some features of health care that distinguish it from other industries