I had this woman call me today in complete desperation. She had been to a walk in clinic on St. Clair West and had a terrible interaction with the MD. I knew right away who she was talking about and asked if she had gone to Solutions Health Care Associates. I had been to this walk-in clinic myself and remembered how awful this doctor was. It was my wedding day. I had strep throat and needed a quick prescription. I was educated in medicine and knew what I needed so his terrible bedside manners did not affect me.
This woman saw him yesterday in terrible pain, from what I believe is an infected site. She told me that he barely assessed her, as in he sat across the room from her and then simply sent her off with antibiotics. She woke up this morning worse and was unable to cover the wound due to restricted movement and went back to see him. She waits to see him and he tells her, that it is not the MD's job to put on a dressing and to continue with the antibiotics. She is in excruciating pain, visibly upset and desperate for help. She tried to see her family doctor but could not get an appt. for 2 weeks. Welcome to Canada and free health care.
She came to see me a few hours after him. I looked at the site and noticed how fire red it was. There was spreading of reddness with defined margins from the area, as well as it feeling warm to touch. She was also in excruciating pain and had limited range of motion. My slightest touch elicited pain. I sent her to the ER for a proper assessment and treatment plan. I will call her tomorrow to see how she is doing. It breaks my heart that this was her experience and that our system treated her this way.
She told me how compassionate I was. It's kind of her to say that, but really all I did was attentivley listen and genuinely try to help her. I made eye contact, passed her a tissue as she sobbed and sat beside her for reassurance. It took all of about 10 minutes. It does not take that much effort to help another person in need. I am going to approach this MD tomorrow morning to tell him negligent and hurtful he was. I'm sure he won't give a sh*t but I'll feel better.
keep you posted.....
Change is a Learning Process
Winning organizations recognize the importance of learning. Companies that don’t learn new ideas don’t change to meet the demands of those they serve. When an organization doesn't change to meet new demands, it eventually fails. That is why we set aside time for learning.
Last Thursday, GBMC leadership had a marvelous day of learning with our teachers from Next Level Partners who taught us about focused problem solving to get better execution of meaningful change.
The former President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Dr. Don Berwick, says there are three important factors required for improvement:
1. The will to change
2. Ideas
3. Execution
I have no doubt that at GBMC our people want to change. They embrace our vision of providing the care that we would want for our own loved ones to every patient, every time. We have the will to change.
I know that GBMC has a workforce made of many intelligent individuals with great ideas to improve our processes. I also know that with the Internet, many solutions are just a few clicks away. So, there is no lack of great ideas.
Our dilemma is number 3: execution. Healthcare in general has not been particularly good at executing change. Many healthcare service processes haven’t changed much since the mid twentieth century. Many companies have unwittingly instilled the notion into their people to hold on to the status quo, and to learn to deal with systems that don’t work, rather than getting them the idea that not only is it their right to fix broken systems – it is their duty.
We are implementing Lean Daily Management to change this. Since we started this technique last April, our senior team visits departments and units every day. On our daily walk, members of the unit and department teams tell us about the performance of key indicators from the day before. They tell us about the reasons why goals were missed and about their problem solving to improve the process.
A great example of excellent problem solving can be seen in the work done by both the Emergency Department and inpatient unit teams, including doctors, nurses and techs, with the help of housekeepers and transport aides, to move patients more quickly from the ED and into a hospital bed. We have reduced the time in the ED of patients admitted to the hospital by more than two hours.
So, our friends at Next Level Partners taught us more of the science of improvement to help us execute faster. It was a great day of learning for GBMC leaders. Such offsite trainings make us stronger as an organization and make our people more skilled. We all came back to work more inspired and better prepared to move us faster toward our vision.
Last Thursday, GBMC leadership had a marvelous day of learning with our teachers from Next Level Partners who taught us about focused problem solving to get better execution of meaningful change.
The former President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Dr. Don Berwick, says there are three important factors required for improvement:
1. The will to change
2. Ideas
3. Execution
I have no doubt that at GBMC our people want to change. They embrace our vision of providing the care that we would want for our own loved ones to every patient, every time. We have the will to change.
I know that GBMC has a workforce made of many intelligent individuals with great ideas to improve our processes. I also know that with the Internet, many solutions are just a few clicks away. So, there is no lack of great ideas.
Our dilemma is number 3: execution. Healthcare in general has not been particularly good at executing change. Many healthcare service processes haven’t changed much since the mid twentieth century. Many companies have unwittingly instilled the notion into their people to hold on to the status quo, and to learn to deal with systems that don’t work, rather than getting them the idea that not only is it their right to fix broken systems – it is their duty.
We are implementing Lean Daily Management to change this. Since we started this technique last April, our senior team visits departments and units every day. On our daily walk, members of the unit and department teams tell us about the performance of key indicators from the day before. They tell us about the reasons why goals were missed and about their problem solving to improve the process.
A great example of excellent problem solving can be seen in the work done by both the Emergency Department and inpatient unit teams, including doctors, nurses and techs, with the help of housekeepers and transport aides, to move patients more quickly from the ED and into a hospital bed. We have reduced the time in the ED of patients admitted to the hospital by more than two hours.
So, our friends at Next Level Partners taught us more of the science of improvement to help us execute faster. It was a great day of learning for GBMC leaders. Such offsite trainings make us stronger as an organization and make our people more skilled. We all came back to work more inspired and better prepared to move us faster toward our vision.
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