Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC), founded in 1920, is a private, non-profit organization located in Seattle, Washington.
Contents |
Gary S. Kaplan, MD, serves as chairman and CEO. The organization was named after the daughters of its two founders: Dr. Tate Mason's daughter, Virginia Mason, and Dr. John Blackford's daughter, Virginia Mason Blackford.
VMMC is the operator of Virginia Mason Hospital.
The group offers a system of integrated health services. The medical center includes:
Virginia Mason's centers of excellence include:
Virginia Mason is also an academic teaching institution with residency programs including:
In 2002, Virginia Mason spearheaded an effort to improve patient safety and quality of care by adopting the Toyota Production System (TPS). Named the Virginia Mason Production System, Virginia Mason was the first health care institution to implement the TPS philosophy throughout the institution. The two main tenets of this system are to 1. minimize waste through just-in-time production and 2. eliminate defects in the system by empowering staff to "stop the line" whenever they detect a patient safety or quality problem. The problem is then analyzed and a solution tested out in a Rapid Process Improvement Workshop (RPIW). The VMPS is reported to have saved the institution $12 to 15 million over the course of six years.[2] Their efforts have resulted in VM being named one of the Leapfrog Group's top hospitals for the past several years.[3]