--- url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-the-fix-and-the-system/' title: 'When Something Went Wrong, 50.0% of Health Care Employers Had a Continuous-Improvement Process. In Restaurants, 34.4%' author: name: Samantha Lankford url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/author/sam/' date: '2026-10-30T15:30:00-04:00' modified: '2026-10-30T15:30:00-04:00' type: post summary: 'Census 2023 survey: of employers that hit a service or production problem, 50.0% in health care had a continuous-improvement process. In restaurants, 34.4%.' categories: - Blog Post image: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/founder-the-fix-and-the-system-hero.webp' published: true --- # When Something Went Wrong, 50.0% of Health Care Employers Had a Continuous-Improvement Process. In Restaurants, 34.4% ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png)Founder Data Report ![When Something Went Wrong, 50.0% of Health Care Employers Had a Continuous-Improvement Process. In Restaurants, 34.4%](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/founder-the-fix-and-the-system-hero.webp) Founder Data Report # When Something Went Wrong, 50.0% of Health Care Employers Had a Continuous-Improvement Process. In Restaurants, 34.4% By Michael Dermer • Updated October 30, 2026 You can’t afford to risk your business without a Sidekick at your side. [Book a Call →](https://lp.lonelyentrepreneur.com/meetings/victoria-sherman/sidekick-call) The Census Bureau asked U.S. employers what happened when a problem came up in their service or production. Whether the fix stopped at the fix depends on the trade. Quick Answer In the Census Bureau’s 2023 Annual Business Survey, about half of employers in **health care** (50.0%), **education** (52.1%) and **finance and insurance** (51.3%) that hit a service or production problem fixed it and had a continuous-improvement process. In restaurants and lodging, retail, real estate, repair and personal services, and construction it was between 34.4% and 38.8%. In four of those trades about one employer in five with a problem fixed it and took no further action, or did not fix it. The 30-second version - Fixed the problem and had a continuous-improvement process: 52.1% in education, 51.3% in finance, 50.0% in health care, 41.2% across all sectors. - Restaurants, retail, real estate, repair and construction: 34.4% to 38.8%, and the survey cannot rank those five against each other. - Fixed it and took no further action, or did not fix it: 21.4% in repair and personal services, 10.3% in education. - Said no problem came up at all: 69.4% in real estate, 43.8% in restaurants and lodging. - Shares are of firms that answered: between 37% and 59% of firms, depending on the trade. ## What happened when something went wrong The Annual Business Survey is the Census Bureau’s yearly survey of U.S. employer firms, and its 2023 edition asked a set of management questions. One was about problems in the work itself: **when a problem came up in the business’s service or production, what best describes what happened?** Five answers, one per firm: no problem came up; the business fixed it and did not take further action; it fixed it and took further action; it fixed it and had a continuous-improvement process; or it did not take action to fix it. About half of firms answered (48% across all sectors). Of those, 45.7% said a problem had come up. Among them, 41.2% fixed it and had a continuous-improvement process, 42.5% fixed it and took further action, and 16.3% fixed it and stopped there or did not fix it. An earlier piece here sorted the same question by the size of the firm. This one sorts it by trade, for the 11 sectors where the estimates are tight enough to compare. ## Where the fix came with a process Three trades sat at about half. In education it was 52.1%, in finance and insurance 51.3% and in health care **50.0%**. Each was higher than every one of five trades lower down: restaurants and lodging (**34.4%**), retail (35.2%), real estate (36.5%), repair and personal services (36.6%) and construction (38.8%). Those five could not be told apart from each other, so none of them is the bottom. The Data Employers that fixed a service or production problem and had a continuous-improvement process, by trade Educational services95% range 45.8–58.4%52.1%Finance and insurance95% range 45.8–56.5%51.3%Health care and socialassistance95% range 47.5–52.5%50.0%Professional services95% range 41.0–50.7%46.2%Administrative and support95% range 37.2–45.7%41.4%Arts and recreation95% range 33.8–48.3%40.8%Construction95% range 36.6–40.8%38.8%Repair and personal services95% range 33.7–39.6%36.6%Real estate95% range 32.3–41.0%36.5%Retail trade95% range 32.0–38.3%35.2%Restaurants and lodging95% range 31.5–37.3%34.4% Share of employer firms that answered and said a problem came up. Bars on a 0 to 100% scale. Orange: the three trades whose ranges sit above restaurants, retail, real estate, repair and personal services, and construction. The 95% range under each trade is a conservative one. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Business Survey, Module Business Characteristics by sector (AB2300MCB01), question on service or production problems; U.S. employer firms, released January 2026, retrieved October 14, 2026. ## Where the fix stopped at the fix The other end of the answer list shows a similar divide. In repair and personal services **21.4%** of firms with a problem fixed it and took no further action, or did not fix it. In retail it was 20.8%, in real estate 20.7% and in restaurants and lodging 19.8%: about one in five. In finance (13.1%), health care (12.7%), professional services (12.3%) and education (10.3%) it was 13.1% or less, lower than each of those four. The Data Employers that fixed a problem and took no further action, or did not fix it, by trade Repair and personal services95% range 19.2–23.7%21.4%Retail trade95% range 18.5–23.1%20.8%Real estate95% range 17.4–24.1%20.7%Restaurants and lodging95% range 17.3–22.3%19.8%Administrative and support95% range 13.7–19.8%16.6%Construction95% range 15.1–18.1%16.5%Arts and recreation95% range 9.4–21.1%15.0%Finance and insurance95% range 10.6–15.9%13.1%Health care and socialassistance95% range 10.9–14.4%12.7%Professional services95% range 10.5–14.3%12.3%Educational services95% range 6.6–14.6%10.3% Share of employer firms that answered and said a problem came up. Bars on a 0 to 30% scale. Orange: the four trades whose ranges sit above finance, health care, professional services and education. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Business Survey, Module Business Characteristics by sector (AB2300MCB01), question on service or production problems; U.S. employer firms, released January 2026, retrieved October 14, 2026. > In four trades, about one employer in five that hit a problem fixed it and stopped there, or left it. The first answer, that **no problem came up**, also split by trade: 69.4% in real estate, 65.5% in finance and 65.3% in arts and recreation, against 49.9% in construction and 43.8% in restaurants and lodging. That answer cannot separate a business where fewer things went wrong from one where fewer of them were noticed or named. The Data Employers saying no service or production problem came up, by trade Real estate95% range 67.0–71.8%69.4%Finance and insurance95% range 62.4–68.7%65.5%Arts and recreation95% range 61.2–69.5%65.3%Health care and socialassistance95% range 58.8–62.0%60.4%Professional services95% range 56.7–63.5%60.1%Educational services95% range 55.5–63.7%59.5%Retail trade95% range 51.8–56.6%54.2%Repair and personal services95% range 50.7–55.1%52.9%Administrative and support95% range 48.4–54.3%51.3%Construction95% range 48.5–51.4%49.9%Restaurants and lodging95% range 41.5–46.2%43.8% Share of employer firms that answered the question. Bars on a 0 to 100% scale. The survey cannot say whether a lower share means more went wrong or more was noticed. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Business Survey, Module Business Characteristics by sector (AB2300MCB01), question on service or production problems; U.S. employer firms, released January 2026, retrieved October 14, 2026. ## What to take from this if you run a small one If you are the one who fixes things when they go wrong, the question this survey asked is about what happens after the fix: does it stop there, or is there a way of working that catches the next one without you? In some trades about half of employers with a problem said they had a continuous-improvement process; in others it was closer to a third. The survey does not tell you which is right for your business. It is worth asking which of its five answers would be true for yours, and whether you would be happy saying it out loud. Three limits worth holding. The survey **cannot say why** trades answer differently; it is one cross-section, and trades differ in many ways it does not measure. The answers are the **firm’s own description** of what happened, not an audit of it, and the survey’s answer labels are short, so this piece uses them as published. And the shares rest on the firms that answered, between 37% and 59% of firms by trade. The Data Where the numbers land 50.0% of health care employers with a problem had a continuous-improvement process 34.4% of restaurant and lodging employers with a problem did 21.4% of repair and personal services employers fixed a problem and stopped, or did not fix it 41.2% of all employers with a problem had a continuous-improvement process U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Business Survey. ## Frequently Asked Questions What do small businesses do when a problem comes up in their work? In the Census Bureau's 2023 Annual Business Survey, of U.S. employer firms that answered and had a service or production problem, 41.2% fixed it and had a continuous-improvement process, 42.5% fixed it and took further action, and 16.3% fixed it and took no further action or did not fix it. Which industries most often have a continuous-improvement process? Education (52.1%), finance and insurance (51.3%) and health care (50.0%), each higher than restaurants, retail, real estate, repair and personal services, and construction. Which industries most often fix a problem and stop there? Repair and personal services (21.4%), retail (20.8%), real estate (20.7%) and restaurants and lodging (19.8%), counting firms that fixed it and took no further action or did not fix it. If an employer says no problem came up, did less go wrong there? Not necessarily. The survey cannot separate a business where fewer things went wrong from one where fewer of them were noticed. Where does the data come from? The U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 Annual Business Survey, management module, published by sector. Shares are of employer firms that answered the question. Keep reading - [After a Problem, 20.2% of Employers With 1 to 4 People Fixed It and Moved On or Did Nothing. At 20 to 49: 9.7%](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-fixed-it-once/) - [At 68.7% of Restaurant and Lodging Employers, Promotions Go on Performance Alone. In Real Estate It Is 48.0%](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-performance-alone/) - [In 26% of Manufacturing Plants, the People Who Are Not Managers Never Review the Performance Numbers](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-who-sees-the-numbers/) Part of the entrepreneurial struggle: [Leadership Burden](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/entrepreneur-struggle/leadership/) ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png) Published by **The Lonely Entrepreneur** — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. [lonelyentrepreneur.com](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/) This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.