Objective To analyze the application of lean healthcare management in optimizing services in foreign operating rooms, and provide a theoretical reference for further optimizing service processes in domestic operating rooms with lean healthcare management. Methods PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched literature about lean healthcare management in optimizing foreign hospital operating room service process. The search period was from the establishment of databases to November 2024. The number of publications, publishing institutions, authors, citation frequencies, keywords, the use of lean management tools and the improvement status were analyzed.Results A total of 71 literatures were included. Among them, 17 literatures were published from 2008 to 2014, and the number of related literatures increased significantly since 2015, with 54 literatures published by 2024; 9 literatures were published by universities and 62 literatures were published by hospitals. In terms of the distribution of countries and regions where the literatures were published, there were 34 literatures from the United States, 12 from the United Kingdom, 5 from Italy, 4 from Switzerland, and 3 from Canada. The keywords basically presented the combination ofthemes related to operating room management and lean healthcare management improvement fields, such as lean six sigma, quality improvement, and operating room efficiency. The five lean tools with the highest frequency of occurrence in the 71 included literatures were value stream mapping, fishbone diagram, A3 report, PDCA cycle management, and 5S. Conclusions There is an imbalance in the development of lean healthcare management research, with the number of publications in developed countries being far higher than that in developing countries. Lean healthcare management is conducive to improving surgical safety, work efficiency, and patient-doctor satisfaction. Lean healthcare management should further adapt to the actual situation, unify the lean management indicators in operating rooms, conduct cross-departmental cooperation, maximize the effectiveness of lean improvement tools, and achieve modern medical management.