June 2010
29 posts
What are the odds?
It’s hot in Las Vegas and the heat is on local hospitals as the Las Vegas Sun begins an ongoing quality investigation:
As part of a two-year investigation, Sun reporters Marshall Allen and Alex Richards have obtained a record of every Nevada hospital inpatient visit going back a decade — 2.9 million in all. The information, coupled with interviews with more than 150 patients and health...
What Broke My Father's Heart →
Numbers.
I’ve never really been a “numbers” guy. They don’t allow enough legal/moral creativity for my interests. But that doesn’t mean I don’t respect them. Numbers are vitally important to any business adventure. I just think that sometimes we place too much importance on them—especially when those numbers are just projections without much more than an...
Back to rugged (and it's good...)
Seth Godin:
So I guess instead of slick we’re now seeking transparency and reputation and guts.
3 @leighhouse @danielpink Drive links
If you haven’t dove into “Drive” by Dan Pink yet, you’re due. It takes everything you thought you knew about motivation and turns it around. There are serious implications (everywhere in healthcare, but especially) in the physician compensation area—financial rewards don’t always motivate the behavior they’re intended to. Anyway, Leigh Householder posted a...
THE VELLUVIAL MATRIX →
It’s generally my policy to link to anything written by Atul Gawande, so here is his recent commencement speech for the graduates of the Stanford Medical School.
And again, it is so damn good. Any time I read something by him I dream of being as good of a writer…and thinker.
Digital training!
An interesting nugget from Ed Cotton who heard NPR’s Vivian Schiller at the Wired Business Conference:
Vivian Schiller had a different story, she was all about responding to changing times and about embracing digital platforms as rapidly as possible. She was proud that NPR’s radio listeners are at an all-time high (60% increase in the past 10 years), but yet NPR is rapidly embracing...
Health care by monthly membership →
Individual, isolated bad experiences can ruin a...
Grant McCracken recalls a recent experience on a Virgin Atlantic flight:
I was trying to charge my phone on my Virgin Atlantic flight home from London and one of the attendants descended on me to insist that I cease and desist. I tried to explain that a cell phone was essential to meeting up with one’s car service. She didn’t care.
We’ve all had a similar experience; a power...
WatchWhat we need in organizations are people with a lot of power and no budget. Darn insightful.
Rory Sutherland: Sweat the small stuff
Read! Read! Read!
It’s the secret to life. This just makes so much sense:
It’s a simple proposition: read an article a day. When you are done, make a quick note on what you have read in your notebook. Over time the notebook grows. And yet I honestly believe few people do this. (Savage Minds)
The accelerant for healthcare conversation
Suddenly, you feel like John Nash, you can’t keep up with your own mind as geometric symbols float over the magazine articles in your lap. Someone strikes up a conversation about health care, and suddenly everything you’ve ever heard about the topic is at the tip of your tongue.
Damn, coffee is awesome.
You are Not So Smart because coffee is an amazingly addictive D-R-U-G; but it’s so...
I'll see you in court
Duluth News Tribune:
“The basis for the lawsuit is the defamatory statements that were made on websites and to other sources,’’ Tanick said. “However, by no means does Dr. McKee want to in any way prevent or affect any kind of communications that may be made to the Board of Medical Practice or any other regulatory agencies. The purpose of the lawsuit is to prevent defamation being made on the...
WatchUnwavering commitment to patient safety: if not now, when?
via Gel Health
New ways to organize workers
From the obvious-but-not-no-so-obvious annals:
Given the realities of today’s complex business environment, it is no longer possible to satisfy a workforce with one broad, standard approach to managing talent. A perfect storm of events and trends is pushing organizations to abandon the traditional employment compact along with the one-size-fits-all approach to human resources.
“U.S. health spending will increase from $2.6 trillion in 2010 to $4.7 trillion...”
– CMS Office of the Actuary
Not the definition of sustainability.
Say something
Seth prods corporate speak:
It took me two minutes to find a million examples. Here’s one, “The firm will remain competitive in the constantly changing market for defense legal services by creating and implementing innovative and effective methods of providing cost-effective, quality representation and services for our clients.”
Write nothing instead. It’s shorter.
Most...
Consumers Not Too Psyched About ‘Evidence-Based... →
Discouraging news. I have a feeling, though, if patients knew how much the care they received actually cost and had a true understanding of its chances for success they might feel differently.
A purpose for a closed hospital?
Theme! It’s Detroit Day here. Pure synchronicity.
This is a cool project from architecture fellows at the university up north (my Ohio State pride shining through):
Five research fellows from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning transformed an abandoned house in Hamtramck (which is basically Detroit) into their very own lab rat. The recent...
10 things your hospital won't tell you →
Of my many questions for the folks at West Bloomfield (see below): is the newly built hospital doing anything different to answer these age-old concerns?
“The challenge today is to deliver a level of service comparable to the best...”
– Gerard van Grinsven, CEO of Henry Ford West Bloomfield (a hospital that is part of the Henry Ford Health System)
One Hospital’s Radial Prescription for Change, Harvard Business Review
Fence sitting is annoying. But I’m completely on the fence with this one. Detroit’s got big...
Dr. Jay: I'm hiring! →
Dr. Jay Parkinson’s new company The Future Well is hiring an intern this summer in NYC. A delightfully cool opportunity if you fall within his parameters.
Fixing the noisy hospital →
Do More With Less Principle
Ezra Klein:
Eventually, we’re just going to have to get the growth of health-care costs down. There’s simply no other way.
Predicting the healthcare future is difficult; it is even more so now that we have reform measures in place. Will it work? Won’t it work? I’d argue, strictly in a sustainability sense (i.e., not including any moral arguments regarding healthcare...