Leadership

A leader is someone who has the ability to guide and direct a group of people in completing a goal or task for an organization. They can influence others to reach a specific goal. A leader’s job is to make an organization successful by setting direction, establishing foundation, building will, generating ideas, and executing change. Becoming a leader can be obtained by adopting a leadership model. The key to being a successful leader is to keep an open mind, be willing to try new ideas, and reflect on those. 

Leaders are not just individuals but are ultimately the support system for the entire organization. You are not just a leader, but a doer as well. This basically means you must lead by example. A quality leader reshapes core values, develops professional teams, and implements these changes.

There are 5 sets of complex, interrelated activities that true leaders should strive for. They are: Setting direction, Establish a foundation, Build will, Generate ideas, and Execute change. Setting direction can be accomplished, amongst staff members, by inspiring visions of future aspirations. This can be recognized by helping employees move forward and accomplish goals. Establishing direction consists of encompassing the organizations foundation to succeed. The organization sometimes will go through hard times, but it is necessary to improve systems. Building will is one of the most important attributes as a leader. A leader encourages employee morale which is strongly important because it stimulates employees to become future leaders. Generating ideas keeps healthcare organizations up to date, fresh and new, and helps them evolve towards the future. In a technological era you must keep up with change. If you don’t execute change, the ideas and companies will fail. Companies will remain stagnant and will not thrive. Executing change goes hand and hand with generating ideas. Without ideas, there will be no improvements in the company’s systems, and they will not be successful.

Patients perspective on an adverse event

The term “adverse event” describes harm to a patient as a result of medical care. In the IOM report, To Err Is Human, an estimated 98,000 people die from medical errors each year. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 5 Million Lives Campaign calculated that there are approximately 15 million adverse medical events each year, 6 million of which cause harm to the patient resulting in a significant deviation in the patient care process. (Berwick, 2007)

This week we were asked to write about why or why not the perspective of the patient is most important determinant as to whether an adverse event has occurred. I believe the patient’s perspective is important but not the most or only opinion needed. If an adverse event were to occur it could be traumatic and even life threatening for the patient and their family.  The possible party at fault should be held accountable otherwise there could be even more deaths occurring as a result and the level of healthcare would decrease.

It is imperative that a determinant be made so that the information will help experts gain an understanding of the issue at hand and documents it so the chances of it happening again can be avoided.

If a patient feels that an adverse event has occurred management should listen to their concerns, in hopes to understand and learn from the situation and determine the level of seriousness and how it should be dealt with. But at the same time, because the event has occurred the patient can experience feelings like anger or depression that would prevent them from giving a non-biased opinion.  Further depression from such a traumatic event could even lead to suicide, thus increasing the mortality rate.

 Medical experts and the facilities involved in such an event also deserve to get to the root cause of the error. They are the ones that have to be concerned with a possible malpractice suit or decrease in reputation that may lead to financial losses. And it is possible that the traumatic event was not necessarily caused directly by the event/doctors and instead by an unforeseen circumstance.

In summary the perspective of all parties involved should be taken into consideration when trying to identify and correct an adverse event.  In this way there is no bias or blaming of sides, each party gets their ‘day in court’, and there is accountability for the high quality of care that is expected.

Reference:

Berwick DM. Can health care ever be safe? Ideas from the “5 Million Lives Campaign.”    

Presentation at IHI International Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care 2007.

Retrieved at: Webcast available at: http://www.ihi.org/

IHI/Programs/ConferencesAndSeminars/International

ForumonQualityandSafetyinHealthCare2007. htm?player=wmp.

Electronic Medical Records

I think all healthcare practices should implement Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Did you know that wait times in America are a huge issue? The average wait time is 24 minutes in a doctor’s office and 4 hours in a hospital emergency room. Electronic Medical Records could help cut these wait time as well as save cost and deliver quality care.

When checking-in to a doctor’s office or visiting the emergency rooms the ease for patients will one day be with the swipe of their finger print or a magnetic card.  Being able to check-in this way, moving patients from paper work to a computer system, creates great efficiencies for patient and healthcare staff.   Having the storage capabilities online to find you information with a click of a button will help cut wait times. However, becoming more efficient is not the only benefit. For the patient, access to speedy and good care becomes easier and safer when records can be effortlessly shared with just a few clicks over the internet. Having a electronic medical record with important medical information; such as allergies, blood type, prescription drugs, medical conditions and history in a flash for the physician will help him deliver safe and immediate treatment. In case of an emergency having electronic medical records will help cut human error having your medical history readily available for any healthcare executive making it easy to save your life. 

Having the patient information easily ready for the doctor or nurse may help reduce excessive treatments or stop second opinion testing that may not be needed for the patient. Another way EMR will help save money for the practice will be on office supplies; paper, file folders, ink, staples, white out and any other common office materials, along with cost of labor and space. 

I think that Electronic Medical Records are the wave of the future. Granted it may be costly at first for doctors and their practice, but in the long run the cost will be outweighed by the benefits, it will save patients time and cost and help in delivering quality healthcare.

What quality means to me...

When I think of quality, I think of a product or service that is effective, efficient and has been improved on to be best-in-class and reliable. Something of quality last longer than other brands. Dr. Oetjen made a good point when he asked everyone in class what was their favorite place to eat and to not worry about the cost. Most of our classmates named places that were known for being expensive due to the high quality of food/service, usually accompanied by a lovely dinning atmosphere and friendly customer service. Of course these dinning establishments come with a price and that is why they deliver a product and or service of good quality.

When it was my turn to answer the question I named Kobes Steak House as my favorite place to eat because of their delicious food, white sauce, sake and service they deliver. Granted an average meal will cost you $30 a person, but you are paying for the quality fresh food, the entertainment of the food being cooked in front of you and the friendly service.

In the healthcare field people will chose quality for similar reasons they choose their dining establishment.  We will look for the highest quality in the hospital or doctors regardless of price, a great atmosphere, cleanliness and friendly customer service.  After reading the required modules for my blog I agree on most of the points, aims, and ways of improving quality in healthcare. The six aims of improvement are quality improvement objectives which anyone in the healthcare field should follow as a guideline for delivering quality service.  As a future healthcare executive of a private plastic surgeon’s practice I would hope to improve on my own values or what quality means and distill these six aims of improvement for the staff to want to follow.

Chapter 1: Healthcare Quality and the Patient, by Ransom, mention the six dimensions of quality that are good measures for the healthcare field. I believe if these aims were instilled and followed in healthcare facilities that consumers (patients) and their family will view the establishment as being a quality establishment.

The six aims for improvement that were discussed are as followed (Berwick 2002):

1. Safe – Care should be as safe for patients in healthcare facilities as in their homes.

2. Effective – The science and evidence behind healthcare should be applied and serve as the standard in the delivery of care.

3. Efficient – Care and service should be cost effective, and waste should be removed from the system.

4. Timely – Patients should experience no waits or delays in receiving care and service.

5. Patient Centered – The system of care should revolve around the patient, respect patient preferences, and put the patient in control.

6. Equitable – Unequal treatment should be a fact of the past; disparities in care should be eradicated.

Having these aims of improvement in a mission, vision or value statement will definitely help with any employee focus on delivering quality service towards a patient or consumer in hopes of increasing business through word of mouth advertising, establishing return customers and increasing profitability.

Hello class and welcome to my blog site. It is official I am a blogget :) and I am excited to meet everyone in class.