Virginia Mason Production System

Oregon Health Forum - Events

Thanks to Andrea for this. Who is Virginia Mason and why does she have a production system? No, it's a hospital, one of the leaders in the lean healthcare world.

Here is a link to a presentation (pdf file)

"Seeking Perfection in Healthcare: Applying the Toyota Production System to Medicine"

by Sarah Patterson, Executive Vice President/Hospital Administrator, Virginia Mason Medical Center.

There are many great examples of how lean applies for patient safety and patient care, how it drives employee involvement, etc. Reducing the time between cancer diagnosis and the start of treatment is a powerful accomplishment. Great stuff, I'm glad they share this. It's an inspiration for all of us working in healthcare to spread lean.

Look on slide 26, showing the "after" view of 5S -- there is cart clearly out of place. I assume that's their point, to show how the visual controls make it obvious that there is a problem to be fixed.

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