The CBS Evening News recently aired a report on the role Toyota has played in controlling healthcare costs at the Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle. That’s right, the segment told viewers that the hospital practices medicine based on how Toyota builds cars. "At the end of the day, the Toyota production system is all about the customer," said Dr. Gary Kaplan, the CEO of Virginia Mason Hospital. "For us, it’s all about the patient."

Kaplan takes hospital staff to Toyota's factories in Japan every year. Just as Toyota executives spend part of each day on the factory floor, Kaplan tours the hospital daily looking for problems and solutions. Everyone is encouraged to look for ways to increase hospital efficiency. Nurses, for example, have developed ways to spend most of their time with patients instead of the nursing station. “They’re using Computers on Wheels, or COWs," said Kaplan.

Other improvements have resulted from Rapid Process Improvement Workshops modeled after Toyota. These include systems for immediate appointments and timely treatments. At Virginia Mason's back clinic, treatment time was cut from an average of 66 days to 12.

The report ended with CBS’s John Blackstone telling viewers, “While Virginia Mason doesn't make cars, the hospital is heading down a road that may lead to America's healthcare future.”

The report got me to thinking about the many medical-device manufacturers and their suppliers that have successfully sustained lean programs. A recent Medical Design Reader Poll showed that 4 out of 5 respondents are with companies that apply lean manufacturing principles. Their employees are motivated and their futures are bright.  And odds are there’s a hospital or two nearby near each and every one of them.

Imagine if these lean manufacturing successes took a moment to reach out to the administrators of local hospitals to ask if they could share their lean experiences with hospital staff. Hospitals everywhere could be made to run more efficiently while keeping costs down and quality of care high. Isn’t that what healthcare reform should be all about? And by the way, the positive press for local manufacturers and hospitals alike couldn’t hurt either.

What do you think? Please e-mail your thoughts to joe.jancsurak@penton.com.  And don’t forget to answer this month’s Reader Poll question on healthcare reform.