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The health domain has entered the crucial phase of an important paradigm shift. The word 'customer' has started replacing the word 'patient'. It has been commonly admitted that the hospital's industry must be financed by social systems and only continue to exist as long as sufficient financial resources are available. This statement should be definitely replaced by: "What must be changed such that within available budgets more health can be produced?" This new philosophy needs a system that is able to measure impacts of any local modification on the global system. The present paper aims at finding a Theory of Constraints (TOC)-based answer to the hospital measurement system. TOC has been largely applied in the industrial world. Some successful implementations are reported from the financial industry, 1 but so far the socio-economic world using TOC is mainly limited to profit organisations. We propose an extension of the TOC concept towards a non-profit world.Myriam Kucina is a specialist in clinical paedagogy and hygiene. She has been working in a Luxembourg hospital for 13 years. Her main professional activity consists of developing quality systems and performing efficiency measurements in hospitals. She also obtained a university degree in auditing and managing the EFQM and became a recognised European assessor for the EFQM model. She has been working as a consultant in care for the EHL, the Luxembourg association of hospital managers. She developed quality management and lifelong learning programmes for the paramedical personnel prior to be recruited by the Luxembourg centre for reeducation.