Improving the Experience of Care – let’s start with our words.
Posted: March 17, 2017 Filed under: Accountability, Audactity, Change, Hope, Hospital, Host, Patient Experience, Workplace Culture | Tags: Experience, Healthcare, Hospitality, Hospitals, Patients 4 Comments
I recently re-read the words of broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite, “America’s healthcare system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”
This sad and yet truthful reflection, combined with the reality that our founding partner, mentor, friend, student of the classics, and therefore a natural etymologist – Tim Sullivan – had me thinking about the origination of the words we use in healthcare.
Two words in particular; hospital and patient.
A quick scan of history reveals that in the middle ages hospitals were in fact almshouses for the poor, or hostels for pilgrims. The word ‘hospital’ comes from the Latin word hospes, meaning an entertainer, host, a visitor, a guest, a friend bound by the ties of hospitality.
Another noun derived from this is hospitum which came to mean hospitality, or the relationship between guest and shelterer. Hospes is also the root of the English word host.
In my travels, I have witnessed many hospital leaders who have lost sight of the fact that our roots go back to providing shelter for the poor, a resting place for those on pilgrimage, and completely lost sight of the tenets of welcoming patients as guest or friend.
The English noun ‘patient’ comes from the Latin word patiens, the present participle of the verb, patior, meaning ‘I am suffering’.
The hospital should be a place of respite for the friend that is suffering.
I think it is fair to say that if you’re leading in a hospital (regardless of size) you’re contributing to the running of one of the oldest aspects of the “service industry”. Yet at many hospitals, we seem to have left the consistent delivery of this ‘service’ completely up to chance or in the care of those without the training and skills necessary to deliver upon the promise.
Service – from the old English meaning religious devotion or a form of liturgy, from old French servise or Latin servitium ‘slavery,’ from servus ‘slave.’ The early sense of the verb (mid-19th century) was ‘be of service to’, or ‘to provide with a service.’
What service is your institution providing those who are suffering that come to your hospital for care and cure?
Do you insist on telling your patients and communities why they should be satisfied with your ‘service’ because of how safe you are, what good ratings you get, or how qualified your staff are?
Or are you listening to those you are called to serve in order that you might better deliver the service(s) they need?
Your patients want to feel welcome, be treated kindly, understood, healed, cured, communicated with (not to), and they don’t want their time to be wasted.
The rest (the safety, the expertise and the qualifications) are a prerequisite – foundational and non-negotiable.
Are you listening to those you serve?
Language and Hierarchy
Posted: July 30, 2015 Filed under: Accountability, Change, Holacracy, Leadership, Making a Difference, Personal Accountability, Perspective, Safety, Workplace Culture | Tags: Accountability, Clarity, Communication, culture of safety, Leadership, patient safety, Telluride Summer Camp Leave a commentThe language we use and the hierarchy that this supports is at the core of creating, leading, and sustaining a safe culture.
The words we use
Listening to the faculty and the future (students) at the Academy for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety (#AELPS11) over the past three days, I have heard several comments and engaged in more than one conversation regarding hierarchy, ego, and language as barriers to safe care.
During some of these discussions I heard myself and others say things like, “Communicate down to the housekeeper” and “escalate this up to the board”. While I think these comments are made with no malicious intent, and often find myself thinking and saying these things, I firmly believe that we need to be more mindful of what this “directional” language promotes.
When I listen to this language, I hear us unintentionally reinforce professional elitism. The language implies that the housekeeper is at “the bottom” of our organization and that the board member is at “the top”. Perhaps I’m reading too much into this but having served in both roles, and having been on the receiving end of these conversations for many years, I believe that this language promotes the belief that the housekeeper is at the bottom of the hierarchy and not an equal voice or participant on the care team. The more we think and speak like this, I believe, we are at risk of discounting the input of those at the lower end of the equation, as well as elevating opinions and ideas of those “at the top”, often at the expense of safe care to patients.
Listening to the team
One story we heard here was the tragic story of Lewis Blackman – a poignant reminder of the aforementioned point was the nutritionist recognizing that Lewis had not touched his food, and yet nutrition orders never changed. Did the nutritionist notice, and wonder why? Was he or she empowered to voice concern, and what might have happened had that been the case?
The care team in healthcare is made up of everyone that interacts, communicates and cares for the patient and their family. The professionals serving in the housekeeping department may spend more time in a patient’s room than many of the clinically trained team on any given day. Ensuring that these team members are engaged, respected, and listened to as valuable team members is a critical component of safe care.
Perhaps it is time that we re-think the structure and hierarchy of traditional healthcare environments
The need for a structure and redesign
I acknowledge that we need some organizing structure to run our teams and organize [lead] our organizations. That said, what we presently have in many healthcare organizations seems to be getting in the way of supporting an innovative, just, safe, learning culture.
In the words of Malcolm Gladwell from his book, What the Dog Saw, “If everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing”. I am also reminded about the words of Don Berwick regarding system design, “Every system is perfectly designed to get the outcomes it is achieving”
It is fair to say that our current healthcare system, if designed to get the outcomes we’re getting (estimated 400,000 lives lost a year from preventable error) needs to be redesigned.
A different approach
I recently read about an alternate approach to organizing an organization, the idea is called Holacracy and was coined by Brian Robertson. This is an alternate way of running an organization, modeled on some concepts that are being adopted more and more by innovative, forward thinking leaders. For example, peer-to-peer business models have changed how we get from A to B (Uber) and have revolutionized finding a place to stay while on vacation (Airbnb). These “disruptive” companies have started re-thinking their internal structures and have abandoned traditional top-down hierarchies, controls and processes. This approach to running an organization removes power from a management hierarchy and distributes it across clear roles, which can then be executed autonomously, without a micromanaging supervisor.
What’s interesting is that instead of the anarchy and chaos that one might expect, the work is actually more structured than in a conventional company, it just looks much different. With Holacracy, there is still a clear set of rules and processes for how a team breaks up its work and defines its roles with clear responsibilities and expectations.
David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done, summarizes adoption of this approach like this: “Holacracy is not a panacea: it won’t resolve all an organizations tensions and dilemmas. But, in my experience, it does provide the most stable ground from which to recognize, frame and address them.”
Perhaps we’re ready for a different way to organize and deliver healthcare. Perhaps we’re ready to rethink our hierarchies, controls and processes.
Perhaps healthcare is ready for a little Holacracy.
Grassroots Change + Personal Accountability in Healthcare
Posted: March 20, 2015 Filed under: Accountability, Change, Disruptive Behavior, Heretic, Leadership, Learning, Love, Making a Difference, Patient Experience, Personal Accountability, Perspective, Safety, Trust, Workplace Culture 1 CommentChange and personal accountability in health and care!
Standing on the shoulders of the rebels, the crazy ones, the trouble makers and the boat rockers – these are the folks that I am blessed to call my friends and my colleagues; these are the people that push the envelope for change, that embrace the hard work and the ones I love!
Here’s to Colin Hung, Linda Galindo, Helen Bevan, Tracy Granzyk, Dave Mayer, Michael Bennick, Paul Westbrook, Paul Levy, Katy Schuler, Steve Farber, Jake Poore, Diana Christiansen, Jason Wolf, Coleen Sweeney, Carol Santalcuia, Jason Gottlieb, Chris McCarthy, Kip Durney, Jim Rawson, Debra Barrath, and many, many more.
Changing the culture of healthcare takes a village of the committed, personally accountable, energetic, loving and audacious. I love these change agents!
Please join us on March 24th 20:30 EST (8:30 pm) on Twitter for a tweetchat #hcldr
Grassroots Change + Personal Accountability in Healthcare.
Culture and Love – Safety Leadership Lessons from a Supermarket Chain
Posted: January 6, 2015 Filed under: Accountability, Change, Disruptive Behavior, Health and Care Radicals, Leadership, Learning, Love, Making a Difference, Perspective, Safety, Trust, Workplace Culture | Tags: Accountability, Communication, Leadership, taking risks 1 CommentCulture and Love – a story from 2014
As 2014 drew to a close last week many a news outlet spent time reflecting back on the highs and the lows of the past year. Whether framed as a “top 10 list” or presented more as the best and the worst, here in northeastern Massachusetts one particular story caught my ear.
This was the Market Basket Story, a tale of unparalleled employee unity and pride, and living proof that a small group of committed people can in fact make a difference.
If you’re unfamiliar with this particular tale, there was a real cast of characters; long-time feuding, wealthy family members, unfairly (some would argue) fired senior executives, passionate, committed employees, and deeply loyal customers.
Bottom line: local grocery-store chain CEO fired by cousin (hate each other) board member, employees (loyal is an understatement) outraged and walk off the job, stand-off ensues, employees rally for the fired CEO to be reinstated, customers stay away at the request of employees (and there are no supplies on the shelves) and eventually the fired CEO buys enough shares to take control of the company and is reinstated – celebrations all around and bonus checks for employees!
The news story that I heard a few days ago was celebrating the fact that the entire body of employees has been recognized as the Boston Globe’s “2014 Business Person of the Year”, and reflecting on the leadership of Arthur T. Demoulas, the reinstated CEO, making the statement “… he was reinstated along with his culture of generosity, kindness and caring.”
I love this statement! His Culture!
Think about the words, his culture. This is not an abstract, difficult to grasp concept – this is his, the way he leads, the way he works.
In our work to improve safety in healthcare the word ‘culture’ gets tossed around all too easily. It’s easy to blame the culture, almost as if doing so excuses the behavior. It rolls off the tongue as part of our standard vernacular, and is often the response to much of what ails us:
Q: “Why are some of your operating rooms using surgical checklists and others not?”
A: “That’s just the way we do things here, it’s our culture…”
Q: “What stopped you from speaking up when you saw your senior colleague acting in that rude, disrespectful manner?”
A: “That’s the culture on this team, keep your mouth shut and your head down…”
It strikes me that we cite or state culture as the root-cause of the problem because it creates the impression that fixing or changing it is nigh on impossible. That to tackle, change or create a new culture is a myth so complicated that we best not even try…
The Market Basket story annihilates this myth.
Health and care leaders listen up
Culture is the way we act as leaders. It is the tone we set, the expectations we communicate, and the behavior, language and performance that we tolerate.
Culture is the way we (you and I) do things. Do you want a communicative, fair, safe culture? Then communicate openly about the good, the bad and the ugly. Be fair with the people that choose to work in your organization, and with the way you make decisions (don’t interpret as treating everyone the same…), and model an environment where speaking up about your mistakes and owning them is celebrated not frowned upon.
Remember, if it is to be it is up to me.
His culture!
“His culture of generosity, caring and kindness.” The reporter goes on to interview Arthur T. (reinstated CEO) and he describes some additional tenets by which he runs his company, with fairness, justice, and connection to the human soul.
They’re running supermarkets people, and he’s talking about connecting to the human soul…
He nails it when he shares that the secret to this incredible story is to remember that they are, “… in the people business first, and the food business second.”
Health and care safety in 2015
People business first, medicine business second.
People is where our focus needs to be. Caring and healing our patients and their families, absolutely, it’s the calling that many of us responded to that finds us doing the work we do. But it needs to be more than this…
I propose that in 2015 we need our focus to be more on the people that provide this care – as leaders we need to make these people ‘the business that we are in.’ They will take care of their patients.
Commit to being in the people business first. The care givers; the nurses, the technicians, the physicians, the patient care attendants, the unit secretaries, the managers, the supervisors, the housekeepers, the pharmacists, the social workers and each other.
Provide the generosity, kindness, love, fairness and justice that connects them to their purpose, reminds them of their calling, and creates a safe environment for them to deliver the best care possible.
The reporter for the piece on Market Basket closed out the segment by suggesting that the Market Basket employee’s actions have presented other companies throughout the Commonwealth and around the world with a challenge of sorts – loyalty is one thing, these folks though clearly love where they work, and who they work for…
From loyalty to love!
Perhaps for 2016…
Personal Accountability
Posted: November 21, 2014 Filed under: Accountability, Change, Leadership, Learning, Personal Accountability, Trust, Workplace Culture | Tags: Accountability, Clarity, Communication, culture of safety, Healthcare, Leadership, Lessons learned, speaking up 2 CommentsA conversation with Chuck Lauer
Last year I had the wonderful opportunity to be introduced to Chuck Lauer, the former publisher of Modern Healthcare, by my good friend and colleague Kristi Peterson. Chuck and I spent considerable time talking and emailing about a subject of mutual interest and something we are both passionate about, accountability, specifically about the idea and concept of ‘personal accountability’.
This concept of personal accountability, and the choice to change the words I use when I think about accountability, are in part lessons from the leadership, writings, and friendship of Linda Galindo.
Chuck went on to pen a piece that appeared in Beckers Hospital Review on August 17th 2013. I just re-read it, and thought I’d share it here again. Enjoy…
We hear a lot about “accountability” in healthcare — from the boardroom, to the workplace, to new payment methodologies like “accountable care organizations” — but most people don’t have a clue about what the word really means.
Everyone knows the basic definition: Accountability is a kind of answerability. The word derives from having to give an account — to clearly explain what you are doing. But the actual definition goes much deeper than that.
Richard Corder, assistant vice president of CRICO, a Harvard-affiliated malpractice and patient safety organization, has thought a lot about what accountability is — including what it is not. It is not, he told me recently in an email, about saying “yes” whenever your approval is sought. “In healthcare, we have fallen for the belief that good service means saying yes to everything,” he said to me. “Saying no — and being clear about why, and when you may be able to meet, chat, review, discuss — is a liberating, time-saving, accountable action.”
One of the things often missing in today’s workplace, he said, is a lack of clarity about what accountability really means. “Treating everyone the same is disrespectful to our high performers and excuses (rewards) our middle and low performers,” he said. Fairness is not about treating everyone the same. As leaders, we understand that we have to treat, manage, coach and lead people differently — based upon performance and needs.
“In healthcare, we are currently spending a lot of time (and money) talking about and pondering the ‘accountable entity,'” he told me. “We wax and wane poetically about the who, what, why, when and where, when all the time it’s staring back from the mirror. We are the accountable entities.”
That gets us to the heart of the matter: Accountability has to start with you! If you are ever going to be successful and fulfilled in your life, you have to be accountable to yourself. Sure, you can kid yourself about how good you are, and you can even fool other people by what you say and how you behave. But do not forget that the hardest person to satisfy is you! You have to judge yourself and live with it every day!
Each of us is an accountable entity. That’s why, when leaders lead with clarity and conviction, honesty and transparency, they bring with them inspiration and determination. They have become accountable to themselves! It’s a contagious enthusiasm that permeates their organizations. Talented people are attracted to institutions where leaders are dedicated to innovation, creativity and risk-taking. They fully accept that answering to oneself is the key to success.
I have had the honor of meeting a lot of great people — people who have made a difference and achieved unparalleled success in sports, business and other pursuits. None of them really caught fire until they took stock of themselves and became accountable. Some did this when they were young. Others didn’t face up to themselves until they were older. But in all cases they look back and say that being accountable to themselves is what changed their lives.
Richard Corder said personal accountability means always trying to be clear. When confronted with a problem, you can say, “I tried, but they wouldn’t let me,” he said, or you can say, “Can you help me figure this out? I need to get some clarity.”
It’s important to put some effort into establishing clarity, he said, offering me a quote from the inspirational speaker, Mark Victor Hansen: “By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be.”
Listening to yourself can help you put your plan into action. I don’t know about you, but I have conversations with myself all the time, and from what I can gather from colleagues and friends, they do the same thing. This enables us to begin to develop a sense of our own accountability.
With accountability comes additional responsibility. For instance, in your job, do you speak up when you feel something could be improved? Or are you so concerned about the risk of falling out of favor that you don’t say anything?
In healthcare, we too often delude ourselves into accepting the status quo and are unwilling to try new things that just may be more efficient and guarantee a better experience for the patient. Accountability has to start with people who are willing to hold themselves to a higher standard and be answerable to themselves at all times. The goal is to never deviate from your dedication to excellence.
The road ahead is paved with uncertainty, and you will probably have to drive over many potholes along the way. The whole industry needs leaders who have the courage to look into the future with clear eyes and to inspire their people to do the same. We need to be willing to bring about the changes that healthcare so critically needs. It isn’t going to be easy. Those who hold themselves personally accountable to mission and vision and to themselves will be the stars that inspire all of us with their courage.
Richard Corder gave me a kind of motto for personal accountability. It’s all simple, two-letter words that go like this: “If it is to be, it is up to me.”
I have already put them up on my office wall.
Thanks again Chuck for the friendship, mentorship, interest, and support.
Press Conference Leadership
Posted: November 15, 2014 Filed under: Football, Leadership, Training, Trust, Workplace Culture | Tags: brave, Communication, Leadership, Lessons learned Leave a commentLeadership lessons from the New England Patriots
On the way home tonight I listened to a recording of last week’s post-game press conference with Tom Brady, Quarterback for the New England Patriots football team. In the spirit of full disclosure; I am a Patriots fan, and Brady and colleagues had just come off a victory that many a pundit predicted they had no hope of pulling off, a win against the favored Denver Bronco’s…
I am a happy fan of the winning team, feeling additionally buoyed by the fact that my team had just beat the team that denied us a berth in last year’s Super Bowl, a good result by anyone’s measure. All this aside, what I heard in the press conference from the captain leader of this team, made me realize that what made this football team successful last Sunday afternoon are the same tenets that make any team successful, regardless of the game being played…
A clear vision
During the comments made about the winning game, it became obvious that the vision for this team was broader and longer term than the afternoon’s victory. The vision of the organization (New England Patriots), is to ultimately win the Super Bowl each year. They are competing every week to win enough games to get to the post season, and ultimately get to the final game of the season, and win. Clarity and single-minded committment to a vision is critical.
Clear, executable goals
Tom Brady reiterated that winning football games is the reason the team goes out on the field every week. There are clear goals related to the execution of everyone’s job, there is clarity about each and everyone’s role, the expectations of each player, and their purpose when they’re out on the field. Role and goal clarity is often glossed over as a nice to have, not for this team, not for the Patriots.
Relationships built on trust
When asked about several remarkable plays, from a one-handed catch, to a stunning interception resulting in a touch-down; Brady spoke to the fact that he and his team mates take time to get to know each other, developing deeply rooted bonds of friendship and building trust with each and every one. Over time they learn how to build on and support each other’s strengths, accommodate each others shortcomings, and provide honest (for anyone who has been naked in a locker room with another team mate you know what this feels like), timely, and candid feedback.
A dose of reality
In the locker room, following the win, the Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick congratulated the team for a well-played game, allowing those that had worked hard for the victory a moment of celebration and appreciation. He then reminded the team that seven wins does not make for a winning season and does not guarantee entry into the post season and will certainly not win a Super Bowl. I was struck by this gracious dose of reality; a little time to enjoy the moment, to savor the win, and then remember why you are here. To achieve the goals and reach the vision. Do not stop working toward your goal.
Hire and retain the right people
It was clear listening to Brady during the press conference that this team was made up of people that really love the game of football. They enjoy working hard to get better through practice every single day of the season. He also spoke to the fact that if this wasn’t how a player was “wired”, then they wouldn’t last very long in the program.
Clear vision, communicated expectations and goals, the trust of those you work with, against a back-drop of reality, and a culture of “player fit”, are tenets of any high performing organization and successful team.
How does your organization or team perform? What would your “post-game press conference” sound like?
You promote what you permit
Posted: July 25, 2014 Filed under: Disruptive Behavior, Health and Care Radicals, Heretic, Leadership, Patient Experience, Safety, Workplace Culture | Tags: brave, culture of safety, Healthcare, Leadership, speaking up 1 CommentI recently spent a day with a number of senior clinicians all working in an environment that is permitting pockets of disruptive, unprofessional, and quite frankly dangerous behavior amongst caregivers. The last conversation of the day ended with a chilling reminder that we still have much to do, “The problem is that for too long, to be successful in academic medicine, you haven’t needed to be polite, professional and well mannered…”
Last night I read a headline that really grabbed my attention…
Why disruptive docs may not be so bad after all
Here was my reply:
I will start by saying that there is, in my mind, absolutely no place whatsoever for a disruptive (rude, hostile, ill-mannered, bad tempered) anyone in a safe, efficient, patient centered, healthy, just healthcare environment. Let’s not limit this to physicians…
I am sick and tired of hearing that being a technically excellent clinician and being a decent, respectful, polite human being are somehow mutually exclusive. They are not, and to suggest otherwise is disrespectful to the enormous number that are.
Please don’t suggest that organizations committed to improving the experience of those they serve are “getting rid of disruptive docs…” as an approach because they now have dollars tied to HCAHPS performance. This is a gross over simplification.
I’d offer that any healthcare organization that hires and retains mean, disruptive physicians (or anyone else) is complicit in creating a dangerous, un-just, unreliable work environment, not simply a less than ideal patient experience.
We need to start changing the conversation, raising our standards and expectations, and demanding more of one another. A world class, safe, reliable, effective experience is within our reach, but only if we stop confusing experience with “nice” and start holding ourselves and our colleagues to not only the highest technical standards but also high behavior standards.
I understand that we need to be mindful of the words we use, and am enthusiastically open to the idea that we need to lead with more “healthy innovative disruption” as we work to improve the safety and delivery of health and care. (Note the great work done by Helen Bevan and colleagues at the NHS with the notion of being a rebellious health and care change agent). But to suggest that disruptive behavior, in the way this article does, is somehow OK, and furthermore actually has a place in our healthcare environment, is reprehensible.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’m sick and tired – but far from done!
Posted: July 17, 2014 Filed under: Health and Care Radicals, Heretic, Leadership, Learning, Safety, Uncategorized, Workplace Culture | Tags: brave, culture of safety, Leadership, patient safety, speaking up, taking risks 5 CommentsI am an optimistic person that believes that there are plethora hospital leaders doing the very difficult work of changing healthcare to make their cultures more effective, healthy, transparent, more reliable and less variable. I witness examples of these heroes every single day.
So before I take a little time to rant, let me explain… I work with healthcare leaders that are committed to learning from the past to improve the future, with data as their driver and compass. It is not easy work, per se (let’s be clear, it’s also not the front line care of patients), but it is work that I absolutely love! My reality is that what I do for work is a calling; and so my personal opinions are inherently woven into the work I do, I cannot unravel them.
I tell you this part as explanation, and part introduction; please know that I will never reveal the names of those I reference and would ask that your assumptions be kept to yourself. Needless to say, I think you’d be surprised…
I am sick and tired of the fact that I see many leaders in health care not being honest with themselves.
Unprofessional behavior is tolerated, expectations remain unclear, variation in practice is permitted, and human error is being allowed to harm patients; all the while telling people that they are the greatest, safest, most efficient healthcare system(s) in the world.
Why this lack of honesty? Is it that we’re afraid, or is it that we don’t know?
Do we not know the answers to safer more reliable, transparent, less costly care?
If we don’t know, are we embarrassed to admit that we lack the knowledge?
Are we afraid that if we stop supporting and promulgating the structures, systems, processes, excuses, and people that result in our current dangerous reality, that this will be an admission of past guilt? Are we afraid of the difficult conversations and actions that will be needed to lead a different organization?
I think it’s a combination of embarrassment, fear and a multitude of other deeply held attributes that many smart, well educated professionals have a difficult time “owning” and acting upon.
Let me be clear, I don’t think this is a knowledge gap. Other industries are way out in front of us with their use of technology, their speed to change long held approaches that no longer work, and their desire and ability to learn from others. Many hospitals have taken the lead and are modeling that you can hire for ‘fit’, support daily safety huddles and commit to a goal of “zero preventable harm”, just as a start.
I think we’re afraid of the reality that if we fess up to the fact that we have tolerated bad behavior, poor performance and mediocrity for so very long; that we will have to be vulnerable, naked, open to criticism, and honest with ourselves that yesterday we tolerated and did things that are no longer OK today…
So I have a challenge for myself and fellow healthcare leaders:
Own it.
Start taking personal accountability for who and what your hospitals are. The good (great), the bad, and, the ugly. You are culture!
Own up to the fact that you know who your poor performers are…
Own up to the fact that you may not have articulated your expectations clearly…
Own up to the fact that there are voices of expertise within your organization that you are not listening to…
Own up to the fact that your hospitals culture is staring back at you from your bathroom mirror…
Own up to the fact that if you cannot state “zero preventable harm” as a goal – then, by definition, you have agreed to hurt someone’s loved one in a way that could have been prevented…
Own up to the fact that you got into this because you want to make a difference…
Own up to the fact that you’re tired, over worked, stressed, and that you don’t have all the answers…
Or, leave…
Get out, go home, hang it up, retire! Your colleagues, caregivers, team, patients, community, all deserve better than your dishonesty.
We are surely complicit if we continue to stand by and watch – mute, deaf and blind.
I met with a senior member of a hospitals quality and safety department last week, he confided in me (after looking over his shoulder to make sure the door was closed) that his very reputable AMC doesn’t have the leadership “strength” to state that ‘zero preventable harm’ is their goal. He’s embarrassed and afraid to challenge his CEO.
I met with a senior management team that wanted me to know (after I’d found trash lying on the floor of their lobby, that they had walked past and ignored, and I suggested they ‘pick up trash’) that they “have people to do that…”
I hear leaders tell me that they know that their high revenue producing, senior position holding, research leading, long tenure physician colleagues are abusive bullies, and yet they are still employed, practicing and getting their annual bonuses…
These are choices, and my challenge is for us to make different choices.
My challenge comes with a promise…
My promise, is to keep asking difficult questions, pushing for the right answers, and encouraging and coaching healthcare leaders to be brave. Brave to ask when we don’t know, brave to admit that we made a mistake, and brave to reach out and request help.
I for one am not afraid. Apprehensive and nervous, for sure. Apprehensive that my comments will be seen as negative, accusatory and blaming, and nervous that this sentiment will be seen as one more heretic in the noisy world of working to improving safety and become more reliable and excellent.
But when I think about who we are harming, who we hurt every day in the spirit of “health” and “care”, I am not afraid. When I hear the stories of burned out, stressed, under resourced care giver friends and colleagues, I am not afraid. I’m buoyed, inspired and deeply moved by the memories of people like Michael Skolnik, Josie King, Lewis Blackman, and Jerod Loeb; people I never knew, but people who deserved so much better from the cultures that surrounded them and that were meant to take better care of them.
I am also encouraged and inspired by the health and care radicals (leaders at all levels of their organizations) that are making a difference and inspiring their colleagues to think differently, act differently, be transparent, have difficult conversations, model different behaviors and deliver on the promise of “Primum non nocere”.
So my promise is to keep asking difficult questions, pushing for the right answers, and encouraging and coaching healthcare leaders to be brave.
I leave you with challenges and inspirations from three very different healthcare leaders whose work I admire, and who model this mindset of personal accountability;
- “Rock the boat, without falling out” Helen Bevan (NHS guru of innovative change)
- “Ignite the fire within, not the fire underneath” Peter Fuda (Aussie based wicked smart PhD)
- “Proceed until apprehended…” Florence Nightingale
Lessons Learned — making the most of #CRICO14
Posted: July 11, 2014 Filed under: Learning, Safety, Workplace Culture | Tags: Communication, culture of safety, human error, Leadership, Lessons learned, speaking up Leave a commentI posted a blog earlier this week about the CRICO patient safety symposium that we hosted last month.
As we closed the daylong exchange from some of the country’s leading minds on safety culture, I wanted to recap the themes that we heard and that seemed universal across the day’s conversations. Here’s what we learned and how we captured the “lessons”:
- You are your culture. What you say, how you model, how you behave and what you tolerate is culture. You are personally accountable.
- Open up to the fact that there is only one kind of empowerment. Self-empowerment. No one can “give you” empowerment. You can be given authority. Self-empowerment—take the risks, “lean in”, and get the results that you desire.
- Assess your current reality. Where are you at? Where is the company at? Where is your team at? Are you where you want to be? Look in the mirror, under the covers, and be honest with what you see.
- Hire and retain those that share your company values. Make the difficult decisions on those that don’t fit. Use data. Be brave.
- If you’re about to say “no” to an idea, an approach, an alternate, or a different way of doing things. Stop! Consider what “yes” would look like. You do have a choice.
- Support, reward, recognize, celebrate, and listen to your employees. Period.
- Talk to people, not about them. Eliminate gossip—it is killing your culture.
- Tell stories. Invite everyone to share their narrative.
- Keep doing the difficult, heavy, awkward, challenging, rewarding work that is changing the culture of healthcare. Your patients, their families, your colleagues, and the children in your lives are relying on you.
Thank you for all you do every day to improve.
A healthy dose of (workplace) culture
Posted: July 8, 2014 Filed under: Learning, Safety, Workplace Culture | Tags: culture of safety, Leadership, Lessons learned, patient safety, taking risks Leave a commentLast month, at CRICO, we hosted healthcare leaders from around the country at our annual patient safety symposium “Walk This Way”. My talented colleague and dear friend, Dana Siegal, RN, CPHRM, opened up the meeting with a theatrically inspired look back over her career as a registered nurse, and patient safety expert. Reflecting through narrative and performance that we (healthcare) have come a long way with regard to our tolerance/acceptance of smoking in the workplace…
Now, if that’s all you were left with, you missed her point! She deftly wove the analogy of smoking in with many other “journeys” of change, from seat-belts to car seats, from drunk driving to exposure to sunshine safety. Up to and including our current journey of patient safety; from pre-IOM report, through “Crossing the Quality Chasm”, up to and including the most recent Lucian Leape white papers.
With this as a back drop, Dana challenged us with a hopeful message, that indeed journey’s such as these take time, require leadership and demand that we stay focused. We explored how attitudes, policies, and behaviors—that is, the workplace culture— related to smoking changes over time. We looked back in amazement to a time when physicians, nurses, and patients openly smoked cigarettes in hospitals and other health care settings…
Then we asked our Walk This Way attendees to place themselves 10 years into the future, and make a prediction about changes related to patient safety in their workplace that would make the look back in amazement…
The following is sample of the view from 2024.
It’s hard to believe that back in 2014 we:
- Worried that all clinicians were not reporting adverse events or near misses or good catches
- Took over a year to build a patient portal while arguing about what to “allow” patients to see
- Shouted at colleagues while treating patients when something went wrong
- Sequestered doctors and nurses from other health care workers
- Kept adverse events a secret from staff
- Expected patients to make their own appointments for consults and follow-ups
- Blamed people working in bad systems versus looking at the process and making that better
It’s hard to believe that back in 2014 we didn’t:
- Allow patients full access to all parts of their medical record so that they can truly partner with us in their care
- Always wash our hands when seeing patients
- Feel comfortable stopping the line when something doesn’t seem right
- Have a standardized handoff process
- Have efficient systems for formally tracking/following up on abnormal test results
- Respond effectively to every instance of disrespectful behavior
- Round on patients as an interdisciplinary team
By definition, this is our “current state”…
What will you look back on in 2024 and be “amazed” that we did or didn’t do?
Does it need to take us ten years?
Richard Corder 