Gary Kaplan Highlighted in 'Fast Company' for Revolutionary Approach to Healthcare
16 Dec 2015
Dr. Gary S. Kaplan was recently profiled in Fast Company, in an article titled Why Teams Don’t Learn From Their Mistakes (And How to Change That) about how Dr. Kaplan dramatically improved Virginia Mason Medical Center’s quality of care.
After visiting a Toyota plant in Japan, Dr. Kaplan took note of the automaker’s procedure for responding to errors in production and the production system itself: "The system was about cars, which are very different from people," Kaplan says..."But the underlying principle is transferable. If a culture is open and honest about mistakes, the entire system can learn from them." Kaplan brought those ideas back to Virginia Mason and implemented a new reporting system. Small tweaks, an open-reporting policy, and continued learning has made Virginia Mason one of the safest hospitals in the world.
+Read the full article in Fast Company
Aside from his patient-care duties and position as CEO with Virginia Mason Medical Center, Dr. Kaplan is a clinical professor at the University of Washington and a widely sought-after speaker. An expert who is constantly pushing the envelope on how to improve healthcare quality, he keynotes on healthcare quality, safety and efficiency.