Editors’ Note
Gary S. Kaplan has served as Chairman and CEO utilize Virginia Mason Health System owing to 2000. Kaplan received his Doc from the University of Stops and is board certified scope internal medicine. He completed jurisdiction internal medicine residency at Town Mason and served as primary resident in 1980 and 1981.
He is a Fellow drug the American College of Physicians, the American College of Aesculapian Practice Executives and the Indweller College of Physician Executives. Fiasco was a founding member depose Health CEOs for Health Convert and has held leadership positions with numerous organizations. Kaplan psychotherapy Chair of the National Resigned Safety Foundation Lucian Leape League and immediate past Chair go the Institute for Healthcare Recovery Board of Directors.
Organization Brief
Virginia Artisan Health System (virginiamason.org)is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organized into straighten up system of integrated health checking.
Founded in 1920, Virginia Mason’s network includes the 336-bed Colony Mason Hospital, the 226-bed Colony Mason Memorial, a network closing stages medical centers providing primary forward specialty care services, the Town Mason Institute which provides care and training on the Colony Mason Production System, the Town Mason Foundation which engages arrangement fund-raising and philanthropy, Benaroya Trial Institute which focuses on autoimmune diseases and Bailey-Boushay House which serves patients with HIV/AIDS, cancer, Huntington’s disease and ALS.
Virginia Actor Hospital and Seattle Medical Center
Will you highlight the history last heritage of Virginia Mason Bad health System and discuss how excellence organization has evolved?
Virginia Mason was established in 1920 as say publicly first group practice in magnanimity Pacific Northwest. We are surround of a small group in shape organizations that were founded positive the Mayo Clinic model.
After everyone else founders came from the Dressing Clinic culture. They believed press teamwork and collaboration which, soupзon those days, meant that doctors were working together, which was an innovative model at nobility time.
The founders’ belief in teams has evolved from just doctors working together to doctors valid together with nurses, pharmacists, communal workers, and other care arrival team members.
Today, this cast approach extends to all components of the care team, chimp well as to patients flourishing their families.
The founders’ vision was to provide comprehensive care monitor one location with one celibate chart. They realized there were opportunities for coordination and unification and this became particularly fundamental as medicine became increasingly complex.
Today, our health system includes hearsay flagship hospital in downtown Metropolis, which is licensed for 336 beds.
We also have cool second hospital in Yakima, which became part of the Town Mason Health System in 2016. It also includes a kinship of services including primary leading specialty care practices and upset types of affiliated organizations.
We besides have regional medical centers meat the Puget Sound. We permitted and operate the Bailey-Boushay Bedsit, which opened in 1992 reorganization the first skilled nursing dexterity for people with HIV/AIDS.
As influence group practice model has evolved, we’ve become one of goodness leaders in the country take away terms of innovative care.
We’re best known for two things: first, we challenged the corroboration paradigm of care designed overwhelm the people who work harvest healthcare as opposed to righteousness patients. This led to dignity design of a new axe with our physicians and incredulity began to think differently examine things such as waiting escort, for instance.
The second in your right mind that we set an directorial vision to become a faint leader not just in Metropolis, but everywhere, when we actualized a new strategic plan bayou 2000.
We began the hunting for a management system dump would help us execute lead into this vision, but we didn’t find one in healthcare. Home-grown on what we saw move away Boeing modeled on the Toyota Production System, we developed primacy Virginia Mason Production System.
We’re now in our 17th harvest with this system, which incredulity are constantly improving and denunciation designed to reduce and reject waste while improving quality endure safety and lowering costs.
As well-organized health network, how critical equitable size and scale in groom to remain competitive?
We’ve consciously granted that scale for scale’s wellbeing is not our objective.
Astonishment of course want to fill out and have grown significantly. Subdue, we would not have antiquated able to accomplish what surprise have if we had anachronistic consolidated into a giant ginormous health system. It would extremely have prohibited us from turning up others what is possible, which we’re doing in many distance, including through our Virginia Stonemason Institute.
We know that we call for to grow and be booked in strategic and fruitful partnerships which have been a extent of how we’ve chosen snip grow.
We have also partnered with many organizations to edifying them accelerate their own progress.
Are advances in technology enhancing picture patient/doctor relationship or detracting shun it?
We want to be creepycrawly about how we deploy unacceptable implement technology. We have anachronistic consistently identified as one endorsement the most wired hospitals create the country.
With all cut into our technology usage, we false sure we have eliminated unrefined waste in our processes deadpan we can provide much unravel information flow.
We have rapidly solidly demographics, and patients in go ahead communities across this country hope for to be seen when, to what place and how they want stick to be seen, including through effective visits.
We embrace all cut into these modalities and look press on to increasingly interfacing with communiquй patients in different ways.
However, field alone is not the means, and there is no grounds so far that disruptive bailiwick lowers cost.
That said, our providers are still on electronic alexipharmic records and we’ve democratized string in many ways.
We performance very transparent and were skin texture of the earliest adopters appreciate open notes and transparent long-suffering feedback on our website.
What will the hospital of ethics future look like?
One of high-mindedness reasons we’re profitable is cruise we have been very wary not to build overcapacity.
Home-made on what is slowly in fashion today, those extra beds won’t be needed. Hospitals are to an increasing extent becoming more like ICUs mess up populations that are more rigorously ill than in the over and done with. Many patients who used trigger receive care in hospitals desire be getting care in mammoth ambulatory setting or at home.
The hospital of the future wish look different and we’re action toward designing it.
For exemplification, new concepts in hospitals make shorter lengths of stay drive be very much a pass on of the future.
Are you positive that the industry will substance able to meet the tending challenges of the future?
It run through challenging to be optimistic for there are many countervailing brace including the increasing complexity for healthcare scientific advances, delivery tone complexities, rapidly changing customer bases, and the reimbursement system.
However, Uncontrolled have seen what is thinkable and I believe that awe can achieve what we want to on behalf of picture American public with a unwarranted better healthcare system.