Transforming Systematic Literature Synthesis into Meta-Data Analysis: The Impact of Lean Six Sigma in the Healthcare Sector

This study presents a comprehensive meta-data analysis of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) research in the healthcare sector, synthesizing recent academic literature to map key themes, trends, and construct relationships. Leveraging a systematic literature review guided by PRISMA protocols, 38 peer-reviewed articles indexed in Scopus (2021–2025) were analyzed to describe the evolution of scholarly interest, collaboration networks, and thematic clustering in LSS healthcare research. The results reveal a dynamic and collaborative research landscape, with contributions from 130 unique authors across 57 countries, and a broad spectrum of journals and publishers. India leads in publication volume, highlighting regional disparities and the need for greater engagement from underrepresented countries such as Indonesia. The study identifies three core constructs—Organizational Management & Efficiency, Operational Implementation, and Healthcare Delivery and Quality—each empirically grounded in co-occurring and highly correlated keywords. Through co-occurrence analysis and keyword correlation, the research develops robust indicators for each construct and proposes a data-driven path model for future quantitative analysis using PLS-SEM. While the findings advance theoretical and practical understanding of LSS implementation, the study is limited by its focus on English-language, Scopus-indexed articles within a five-year period, and by the predominance of research on private hospital institutions. Recommendations for future research include empirical validation of the proposed constructs, extension to broader healthcare settings, and examination of mediating and moderating factors in LSS effectiveness.