Virginia Mason’s CEO on Health Reform

Dr. Gary Kaplan, the CEO of Virginia Mason Medical Center is now part of an effort called “Health CEOS for Health Reform“. He posted a video on YouTube talking about health reform, framing some of it in a “lean” or Toyota Production System perspective.

For more on the “Virginia Mason Production System,” click here for a quick overview.

Key points:

• Need to stop complaining and take action
• The path to better quality and safety is the same as the path to reduced cost
• Our system is so full of waste (non-value-added activities), need to systematically reduce and eliminate that waste
• Policy makers should think big and get honest about what's possible
• Improvement is not coming from a technological arms race