Gary Kaplan, CEO of Virginia Mason Hospital, was responsible for integrating lea
ID: 387008 • Letter: G
Question
Gary Kaplan, CEO of Virginia Mason Hospital, was responsible for integrating lean production that transformed the efficiency of the hospital. By 2012, Virginia Mason had transformed into a more efficient, customer-responsive organization where medical errors during treatment has been significantly reduced. Among other gains, lean processes reduced annual inventory costs by more than $1 million, reduced the time it took to report lab tests to a patient by more than 85%, freed up the equivalent of 77 full-time employee positions through more efficient processes, and reduced staff walking distance by 60 miles a day, giving both doctors and nurses more time to spend with patients. These, and many other similar changes, lowered costs, increased the organization’s customer responsiveness, improved patient outcomes, and increased the financial performance of the hospital.
1. What do you think were the underlying reasons for the performance problems that Virginia Mason Hospital was encountering in the early 2000s?
2. Which of the four building blocks of competitive advantage did lean production techniques help improve at Virginia Mason?
3. Lean production was developed at a manufacturing firm, Toyota, yet it is being applied in this case at a hospital. What does that tell you about the nature of the lean production philosophy for performance improvement?
Explanation / Answer
1. I think underlying reason for the performance problem that virginia mason hospital was encountered in the early 2000s was inefficency with the processes that were used to process patient , refer patients and hold inventory. virginia mason has too many go between people that were used in the processes for patient treatment and refferals. by cutting out the middle man they were able to efficently process and treat patient in a timelier manner and with higher patient satisfaction. virginia mason was also efficently holding their inventory including an overstock of materials that would be mixed in with items that were used daily. by seperating these items from those that were necessary they were able to cut costs and time.
2. The building blocks of competative advantage that lean techique helped improve at virginia mason would be efficency and quality as excellence and reliability. by introducing lean production into virginia mason kaplan managed to bring efficent process to the hospital. lean production is about using the least amount of reasources necessary in order to maximize the productivity of the company. kaplan was able to cut cost and time, making the process of treating and reffering patient more efficent overall to the hospital. because of kaplan ability to increase efficency, he increased the overall quality through excellence and reliability. having processes that were shorter and provided patients with faster and more personal care increased the overall satisfaction of the patients.
3. that tell about the nature of lean production philosphy for performance improvent is that it minimizes the waste, also minmize overhead expenses and improve employee performance and productivity of the company.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.