ABSTRACT
In 2004, Dr. Robert Mecklenburg was a well-known diabetes specialist who held two prestigious positions at Virginia Mason: Chief of Medicine and member of the board of trustees. Mecklenburg had gone on the original journey to Japan with Gary Kaplan and the rest of the senior team, and he had been among the early enthusiastic adopters of the Virginia Mason Production System (VMPS). He had worked diligently to integrate the new methods into the medical center.
