Evaluate Your Organization’s Culture Our lean health care experts can assess your organization and help you discover how to accelerate change and attain a patient-centered culture. Lean Culture Assessment Why do many organizations spend a great deal of time and resources on process improvement but many fail to sustain those results over time? The answer is that these organizations put a great deal of focus on method and tools but...
Implementing Process Improvement by Focusing on...
Recent Blog Posts
How Eliminating Wasteful Processes Helped a Team...

An interview with Megan McIntyre Why is waste elimination so important to delivering quality care? MM: Waste elimination is essential to the Virginia Mason...

Removing Muda From Daily Work

“Muda” is a Japanese term that, when considered in health care, describes wasteful aspects of processes that add no value for the patient. At Virginia Mason, we use...

Eliminating Waste and Providing Value to Patients...

Virginia Mason has worked with the Dr. Robert Bree Collaborative to provide greater value for patients through the use of evidence-based care bundles, which map out...

Sustaining Improvements to Patient Safety

A couple years ago, we reported on the innovative lean work of Virginia Mason’s VTE Therapeutics Committee and the accomplishments of all the leaders, providers and...

Eliminating Waste to Improve Decontamination and...

An interview with Celeste Derheimer, Senior Partner at Virginia Mason Institute Why is recognizing waste so important to health care? CD: Health care staff often...

5 Ways Patients Can Help Organizations Shape...

An interview with Phil Fergusson, a patient partner at Virginia Mason Phil Fergusson is a volunteer who participates in the Patient-Family Partner Program at...

Using a 3P to Create a Vision and Plan for Better...

How 3Ps enable a new vision to take hold A 3P (Production Preparation Process) workshop is an approach that enables health care teams to create revolutionary...

Four Ways to Improve Financial Capacity in Health...

An interview with Marlon Borbon, partner at Virginia Mason Institute In your work with clients, what do you see as the key to improving financial capacity? MB: I’ve...

Measuring Success When the Lean Improvement Work...

When I talk with health care leaders about lean improvement work, I’m often asked, “How much should I expect to receive as a return?” At Virginia Mason, we don’t...

Selected Resources

Healthcare Improvement Insights

Explore articles, case studies, and research that help healthcare leaders drive sustainable improvement.

Mistake-Proofing Primary Care

Mistake-Proofing Primary Care

Start Your Lean Health Care Journey Learn More Problem Virginia Mason recognized that mistakes and ...

Mistake-Proofing Primary Care

Start Your Lean Health Care Journey Learn More Problem Virginia Mason recognized that mistakes and ...

Why a Midwest Health System Went to Virginia ...

Why a Midwest Health System Went to Virginia ...

“The fact that Virginia Mason is driven by the same purpose we are – serving patients and ...

Why a Midwest Health System Went to Virginia Mason Institute for Help

“The fact that Virginia Mason is driven by the same purpose we are – serving patients and ...

Managing Phone Calls in Primary Care

Managing Phone Calls in Primary Care

Problem Responding to patient phone calls at Virginia Mason consumed a great deal of clinic time ...

Managing Phone Calls in Primary Care

Problem Responding to patient phone calls at Virginia Mason consumed a great deal of clinic time ...