My blog represents my personal experiences and perspectives. This includes many anecdotes from my life and from my medical practice. I have been scrupulous to anonymize all medical anecdotes and to avoid ever belittling or making fun of patients. (I often make fun of and criticize myself, my colleagues, and the institutions where I have worked.)
Joseph Campbell studied and wrote about myths, rituals and ceremonies, and the roles played by these early precursors of theater in the human experience. One of his enduring insights about the function of rituals in a society is informative to the role of structure in an organization.
This week I reviewed the most recent minutes of a hospital committee charged with initiating and managing clinical quality initiatives. As usual, the minutes documented a substantial amount of conscientious hard work by a very motivated group. However, one item caught my attention: they were sending a draft of quality goals for 2012 to the four Division Chiefs for approval, with a deadline of 9 days later.
At a recent management meeting, top leadership spoke eloquently and forcefully about the huge challenges we face from a ‘perfect storm’ combination of our ongoing national financial crisis and the health care reform act with its unknown and largely unknowable changes. They emphasized the need for innovations that are carefully considered, centrally controlled, and rapidly developed and deployed. The underlying theme was: “Major change is inevitable, and mistakes are not an option. We have to get it right the first time.”
Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is a relatively recent but very popular development with great potential for both good and ill.
It was my day to see ‘acutes’ - patients who call with issues that need to be seen that day. A day to be prepared for anything.
The language of medicine is highly evolved and complex and allows clear, detailed, specific and unambiguous descriptions. Except when it’s not.
When I saw Josh on my morning schedule for a college physical, I was surprised. Pleased, but nonetheless surprised. Josh was a good kid with a quick intelligence for things he could touch or build, who always made it clear he didn’t care for school, but who had never been in academic difficulty, getting by with mostly Cs and occasional Bs. He worked some in his uncle’s electrician’s business, and I had always thought this was a good match for him. College was something he had never expressed interest in.
I have been blogging at PeterEliasMD.com for almost 6 months and have learned a great deal.
Today’s mail included a note from a grateful mom and dad. It had a vintage car on the cover, and the message made me smile:
Many organizations talk about and attempt to use quality improvement management tools, such as those drawn from the Toyota TQM, Lean, and other recent popular management paradigms.