Transforming Health Care, Charles Kenney
Transforming Health Care, Charles Kenney
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Transforming Health Care
Virginia Mason Medical Center's Pursuit of the Perfect Patient Experience

Author: Charles Kenney

Narrator: John Chancer

Unabridged: 11 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/07/2026

Synopsis

For decades, the manufacturing industry has employed the Toyota Production System — the most powerful production method in the world — to reduce waste, improve quality, reduce defects and increase worker productivity. In 2001, Virginia Mason Medical Center, an integrated healthcare delivery system in Seattle, Washington set out to achieve its compelling vision to become The Quality Leader and to fulfill that vision, adopted the Toyota Production System as its management method.

Transforming Health Care: Virginia Mason Medical Center's Pursuit of the Perfect Patient Experience takes you on the journey of of Virginia Mason Medical Center's pursuit of the perfect patient experience through the application of lean principles, tools, and methodology.

Over the last several years Virginia Mason has become internationally known for its journey towards perfection by applying the Toyota Production System to healthcare. The book takes readers step by step through Virginia Mason's journey as it seeks to provide perfection to its customer – the patient. This book shows you how you use this system to transform your own organization.

About Charles Kenney

Charles Kenney serves as the Chief Journalist at Northwell Health and Executive Editor of the Northwell Innovation Series. He is the author of many books, including The Best Practice: How the New Quality Movement Is Transforming Medicine, which the New York Times described as "the first large-scale history of the quality movement." He serves on the faculty of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily on June 25, 2025

I want to re-read this at some point, super interesting to see how modern day “little things” have translated across US healthcare from this initiative. Also how lean principles can be applied almost everywhere. Not an auto-pilot book. Not textbook style, but requires being in the mood to translate c......more

Goodreads review by Jack on August 27, 2019

The idea of applying lean management to healthcare has been a contentious one, but for the past ten years, Virginia Mason has been held up as the classic example of why the historically contentious idea is a worthwhile one. The nutshell story goes, Virginia Mason took classic lean management ideas,......more

Goodreads review by Krystal on March 20, 2023

Really opened my eyes about what VPMS really is and why it is important/useful in any type of production.......more

Goodreads review by Hoang-Khang on June 12, 2019

A CLASSIC BOOK ! This book tells the story of the burgeoning health care quality movement, and of how the medical landscape is being radically transformed — for the better. Good for anyone wanting a background on the history of quality improvement and some of the key players who started it all. 📖 The B......more

Goodreads review by Shanil on June 17, 2012

I continue my struggle to find how to best engage this health-care behemoth. I find the themes in the book appealing and speak to some underlying principles which I endorse re redistribution of resources/philosophy to streamlining efficiency. It fails for me in that it meets Goliath not as David but a......more

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