| | |  | Toyota Production System | Home » » » » Transforming Health Care: Virginia Mason Medical Center's Pursuit of the Perfect Patient Experience | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | For decades, the manufacturing industry has employed the Toyota Production System — the most powerful production method in the world — to reduce waste, improve quality, reduce defects and increase worker productivity. In 2001, Virginia Mason Medical Center, an integrated healthcare delivery system in Seattle, Washington set out to achieve its compelling vision to become The Quality Leader and to fulfill that vision, adopted the Toyota Production System as its management method. Winner of The Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award Transforming Health Care: Virginia Mason Medical Center's Pursuit of the Perfect Patient Experience takes you on the journey of of Virginia Mason Medical Center's pursuit of the perfect patient experience through the application of lean principles, tools, and methodology. The results speak for themselves, including: - An innovative patient safety alert system
- Reduction in professional liability insurance expenses
- Foundational changes that make it possible for nurses to spend 90% of their time with patients
- A computerized module that sorts through electronic medical charts and automatically identifies when disease management and preventative testing due
Over the last several years Virginia Mason has become internationally known for its journey towards perfection by applying the Toyota Production System to healthcare. The book takes readers step by step through Virginia Mason's journey as it seeks to provide perfection to its customer – the patient. This book shows you how you use this system to transform your own organization. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Charles Kenney | | Hardcover:
| 248 pages | | Publisher:
| CRC Press | | Publication Date:
| November 08, 2010 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1563273756 | | Package Length:
| 9.1 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.7 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.0 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 4 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 How Lean Health Care Transformation Can WorkJan 04, 2011
By J. A. Morrow
"vizbizwiz"
The more you know about lean transformation the more you'll envy the Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) for having the right people in the right places at the right times. At the end of the 1990s VMMC faced a struggle for survival as an in-the-black, separate entity. The CEO, Gary Kaplan, an MD and highly regarded executive saw the need for dramatic action and found it, after energetic searching, in Toyota Way thinking and acting. He created and nurtured the informed consent of the board of directors and, through John Black, engaged the Japanese consulting firm Shingijutsu. The executive team joined in embracing what became known as the Virginia Mason Production System (VMPS) and, with the clinical staff, hammered out the Virgina Mason Medical Center Physician Compact, the basis for concordant action in the VMPS.
What's really to envy is the constancy of purpose that VMMC has maintained: when transformation efforts flagged or failed or worse - and they did, regularly - execs and docs, with board support, doubled-down and solved the problems. Each time that happened momentum increased: physicians saw better outcomes and less wasted effort, patients had better experiences, nurses spent more time actually helping patients, payers got to spend money where it mattered more, medical errors (and malpractice insurance cost) dropped dramatically, the list goes on and on, each recovered success synergizing more successes.
As Donald Berwick points out in his Foreword, VMMC isn't perfect yet but, crucially, improvement continues apace: the board of directors, unified behind the VMPS, is chaired by Carolyn Corvi (the Boeing exec who, with Shingijutsu guidance, made the moving line in 737 final assembly happen), executives have become sophisticated in lean system dynamics, clinical staff are well aligned with the VMPS, and VMMC runs significantly in the black. Now all VMMC needs is a rational system of health care payment in which outcomes are rewarded instead of procedure delivery.
The author, Charles Kenney, has produced a highly readable book with plenty of rich, authentic-seeming detail. I am a fast reader somewhat familiar with the sorts of issues addressed in the book, yet despite this being a relatively short book Kenney presents so much to think about that the pleasure of reading the book lasted much longer than anticipated.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Transforming Health CareApr 23, 2011
By DavidO
"If it was easy, anybody could do it..." The story of the "pursuit of the perfect patient experience" by the people of VMMC is truly an inspiration that calls each of us again to the pursuit of excellence in our leadership and service in health care. This well-written story provides us information for our heads and inspiration for our hearts. It shows us with a substantial real-world example that we can do profoundly better when we wholeheartedly pursue excellence in patient-focused care in a committed, collaborative and creative manner. The ongoing story of the pursuit of extraordinary service to people by the people of VMMC is compelling evidence that although it is not easy, it is the right thing to do, and we can do it, too. "It is the stories we tell others and the stories we tell ourselves that determine the quality of our lives." This is a story worth reading, worth telling, and worth living.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Toyota Production System: The Key To Transforming Healthcare?Feb 15, 2012
By Jason J. Denis
Could Seattle's Virginia Mason Medical Center hold the key to transforming America's dysfunctional healthcare system? This is a fascinating read of Virginia Mason's 10-year journey in applying a lean philosophy across its' entire enterprise. See how they modified Toyota's Production System (TPS) into the Virginia Mason Production System (VMPS) to create a lean culture characterized by ongoing process improvement resulting in higher quality care, improved safety, AND cost savings.
5 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Good read for the hospital improvement novice or senseiJan 13, 2011
By David Womack
This is a good read for anyone interested in improving operations in American hospitals. It tells the story of a decade long journey at Virginia Mason Medical Center to improve quality and reduce costs by adapting the Toyota Production System to healthcare. It captures successes and struggles and reads like a good history book. Students and readers that are beginning to explore quality improvement will find this very valuable. More experienced readers will recognize that many of the solutions offered are now becoming standard practice in American hospitals. But even for the true quality Sensei, the book still offers a good synthesis of how to tie many quality improvement concepts into a unified management system and how to keep raising the bar higher. I recommend it.
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