ABSTRACT
Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) is one of the
three major hospitals of Seattle with a staff of four hun-
dred employed physicians and a total of five thousand
employees. The hospital, which includes a main campus
in the Pill Hill neighborhood overlooking Puget Sound
and seven regional centers, has 336 beds and generated
$650 million in net revenues in 2008. Most significantly,
VMMC has long been recognized as the premier user
of the Toyota Production System (TPS) in the healthcare
industry, advising such venerable providers as the Mayo
Clinic and the British National Health Insurance system
on the application of Lean in healthcare. In 2008, they
formed the Virginia Mason Institute (VMI) to provide
education and training in the Virginia Mason Production
System (VMPS), as they call their version of TPS, to other
healthcare providers and organizations.
