Management

At a recent clinical staff meeting, a physician complained that the new requirement that clinicians enter all orders manually into the electronic record (CPOE) is slowing us down and causing errors. The IT and administrative staff were not the least sympathetic. Their message: it’s really not a big deal, it only takes an extra minute or two, and smart people like you should be able to master a simple skill like this.

A physician friend commented recently that he was being ‘meeting-ed to death’ and wondered if it was intentional. It turns out, he was on to something.

Words of wisdom for those who wish to innovate.

Having problems is not a problem. Believing or pretending there are no problems, and then punishing or marginalizing those who want to fix the problems - THAT is a problem.

Leadership can focus on making sure everyone does their job. Or leadership can focus on making it easy for everyone to do their job. The former is more common, the latter is more effective.

Alone we go faster, but together we go further. Alone things are simpler, but together things are better. Alone we control the process and perhaps the product, but it is together that we learn and grow. 

Let’s work together.

Sidney Dekker is a world recognized researcher, successful author, speaker and consultant on safety, error, and complex systems.

Simplicity and transparency are key ingredients to organizational health.

This week I received an email from the leadership at my hospital, encouraging me to contact my elected (Maine) state representatives in support of some pending legislation...

Two points:

1. Measuring something is not the same as improving it. 
2. Improving something requires thinking of quality as a process rather than a product.

Before we think about how these two principles apply to medicine, let’s consider two approaches to coaching basketball: one using incentives tied to outcome metrics, and one using interventions designed to identify and address process problems.