On May 7, Len Rossov introduced our speaker, Dr. Gary Kaplan, CEO of Virginia Mason Health Systems.  It was a fitting pair, as Len was one of the VM physicians that helped orient the then-young Dr. Kaplan when he first joined the organization.

Dr. Kaplan has been CEO since 2000, and as is the VM tradition, he continues to see patients as a practicing physician. 

Virginia Mason Health Systems operates in 9 locations, has 460 physicians and a total of about 5000 employees.  Education is a valuable part of the system, and there are 120 Resident Physicians at VM going through this stage of their training.

The talk was about quality control and efficiency in the delivery of health care.  After much searching, they got their best advice on these matters from Boeing.  They use an equation:

 Q = A x (O+S)/W

Quality equals appropriateness times (outcome plus service) divided by Waste.

He spent some time talking about an evidence based system.  This is encouraged, but unfortunately not always used.  There is a lot of evidence about waste in health care, and he gave some examples.  In the case of lower back pain, an MRI is useful in only about 3% of the cases, but historically it is used in about 40%.  This is quantifiable waste. 

Each patient has a "health maintenance module", which shows up on the computer screen to the physician, to the specialist, and to the scheduler – anyone who deals with the patient.  This module shows recent history and current plans for the patient. 

Dr. Kaplan presented many examples in which the use of evidence made diagnosis and treatment faster and more effective.   It is related to his observation that they have plenty of resources to do the job required, it is necessary to manage them effectively.

And he finished by urging everyone to get a flu shot every year without fail.