(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- What does the production line at a car manufacturer have to do with a doctor scrubbing in for brain surgery?

A lot, as it turns out.

For almost 10 years, Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle has adopted the essential principles of the Toyota Production System in an effort to improve quality, safety, and efficiency. The results have surpassed all expectations. Virginia Mason ranks among the top 1 percent of all hospitals measured for efficiency, according to the Leapfrog Hospital Recognition Program, which compares 1,184 hospitals in 45 states. Efficiency is a Leapfrog measure that combines scores for quality and resource use—an important way of looking at value. Virginia Mason’s Chairman and CEO, Dr. Gary S. Kaplan, and the hospital itself have received numerous national awards and honors for quality of service. Hundreds of doctors, nurses, trustees, administrators, and CEOs from 31 states and eight nations have come to Seattle to see, firsthand, how the Virginia Mason Production System (VMPS) works, and the number of requests for visits continues to increase.

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