History
Virginia Mason Medical Center was founded in 1920 by three physicians: John M. Blackford, James Tate Mason, and Maurice Dwyer; it was named after the daughters of Blackford and Mason. Two years later it created its own school of nursing, which became affiliated with the University of Washington in 1957.
In 1960, Alan E. Nourse, who was a intern at Virginia Mason, wrote The Intern; it was published by Harper & Row in 1965, under the pseudonym "Doctor X".
In 1985, Virginia Mason installed the first lithotripter in the Pacific Northwest.
In 2002, Virginia Mason spearheaded an effort to improve patient safety and quality of care by adopting the Toyota Production System (TPS) to health care. Named the Virginia Mason Production System, Virginia Mason was the first health care institution to implement the TPS philosophy throughout the institution. The two main tenets of this system are to minimize waste through just-in-time production and eliminate defects in the system by empowering staff to "stop the line" whenever they detect a patient safety or quality problem. The problem is then analyzed and a solution tested out in a Rapid Process Improvement Workshop. VMPS is reported to have saved the institution $12 to 15 million over the course of six years. Their efforts have resulted in Virginia Mason being named one of the Leapfrog Group's top hospitals as of 2009.
In 2007, the Seattle Seahawks named their new training facility on Lake Washington the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, as "part of a broad Seattle Seahawks and Virginia Mason partnership to support the health and well-being of our community."
In 2012, Virginia Mason joined Cleveland Clinic, Geisinger Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, Mercy Hospital Springfield, and Scott & White Memorial Hospital as a preferred provider in Walmart's "Center of Excellence" employee healthcare program, as a specialist in cardiac procedures, including "coronary artery bypass grafting, heart valve replacement/repair, closures of heart defects, thoracic and aortic aneurysm repair"
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