A resident is called stupid and a fool when she makes a minor error during surgery. An obstetrician says to a newly hired nurse caring for his patient, “Let me talk to a real nurse.” An obstetrician says to a newly hired nurse…

Our hospitals are busy, high-tech places for healing. Every member of the healthcare team is involved in a critical mission to provide the best possible patient care or support service to help achieve that goal. The healthcare industry is also increasingly regulated and transparent.

At any level of track and field, even the Olympics, the most dangerous moment in a relay race is when one runner hands the baton to the next. Even if the team includes the four fastest humans on earth, if there is a problem transitioning the baton (as happens surprisingly often among top-level athletes), there is little chance of victory. 

Homecare—the provision of personal, often sophisticated, medical care in the home—has been promoted as an attractive alternative to a lengthy hospitalization for patients. Homecare is further advanced as providing patients greater independence and more control over their care and as financially preferable to in-patient hospitalization.

ABQAURP’s 38th Annual Health Care Quality and Patient Safety Conference, Friday, April 17, 2015, Royal Sonesta Houston – Houston, TX

Management guru H. James Harrington wrote, “Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” 

Last July, Phil Gingrey, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia and a physician, expressed frustration over our lack of interoperability in our clinical systems

Long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) and assisted living organizations face unique challenges in delivering high-quality care and positive resident outcomes in today’s healthcare environment. For example, LTPACs work against tight budgets to provide ongoing care to residents with a wide range of disease states and perform complex medication management for residents. 

Have you ever been tempted to answer a question even though you were not sure of the answer? Perhaps the fear of looking stupid was so overwhelming that any answer was thought to be better than no answer. Under pressure, we may “shoot from the hip,” forming an answer to a question in seconds and not taking time to weigh options or consider the question. 

Yelp. TripAdvisor. Angie’s List. Healthgrades. No individual or organization maintains immunity from scrutiny by their customers. Reviews can be uplifting and embarrassing, and they surely capture the attention of both the reviewer and the reviewed.