Respond to two of your classmates' postings with EACH discussion question. 1-2 paragarphs
Damien Todd
- What are the key solutions that he proposes?
In the United States, access to technology and drugs for healthcare providers are in abundance. Dr. Artul Gwande does not feel having better access to both leads to better outcomes. He believes we need to focus on collaboration which he referenced as “pit crews” in medicine rather than relying on the independency of specialists and clinicians. Despite the access to technology and medicine, incomplete or inappropriate care is still affecting patients negatively along with nosocomial infections.
Dr. Gwande also states that the costs of our care is at a point where it is unmanageable. He believes that the most expensive care is not the best care, but rather the cheaper care is the better in many instances. Healthcare is not being utilized from a systems approach as it should, but rather individual components. However, the system itself is composed of many components which are vital to the patient’s outcomes. Protocols and checklists can be very impactful for healthcare providers. Dr. Gwande stated that complication rates and death rates were significantly reduced in 8 hospitals where they were implemented. - How can you apply these as a future leader in healthcare?
As a leader in healthcare, this Ted Talk was very informative and led me to believe that it is rational to think that better results can come at lower costs. It also showed me that structure of systems is important. Having the best specialist and various separate functions means nothing if they cannot come together to provide the best care for the patient. Tools such as a simple checklist can significantly reduce medical errors and death rates. Additionally, they can reinforce teamwork and discipline within an organization. Making systems work is a challenge to our complex healthcare system. Group success in healthcare needs to be prioritized over individualism. As a leader, I need to make this a large part of the culture of the organization and focus on ways to ensure structure and teamwork are understood and a staple of our patient care.
Gawande, A. (2014, March). How do we heal medicine? [Video]. Ted Conferences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3QkaS249Bc
Jonathan Kwakye
In Dr. Atul Gawunde's Ted talk, he shared some useful key solutions that health organizations can adopt to help in reducing medical errors. He highlighted positive deviants, the use of checklists, and confronting healthcare as a system.
The concept of positive deviance is that, even in a system where everything seems broken, there are a small number of people who are achieving desired outcomes (Acquaviva & Joshi, 2014). Such people are worth consulting so what they are doing can be thought to the rest of the organization. In fact, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Such health practices can be adopted throughout the organization, communities, states, and even worldwide.
Secondly, he emphasized the use of checklists in even some complex practices such as surgeries. He shared examples of complex organizations such as the aviation industries and skyscrapers companies and noticed that they use checklists in their practices. Additionally, he noticed that even in some complex professions such as cowboys, they even have checklists to ensure that they do certain things to achieve the right outcomes. His point is that even though the healthcare profession has a history of autonomy and the entire profession has been built as a craft where people are respected based on how much they are able to do by themselves, he recommends physicians move towards checklists to help standardize certain practices. He did, however, caution against the use of checklists for complex tasks such as surgeries, however, he recommends the checklists be adopted for the often forgotten items in surgery.
Lastly, he emphasized systems thinking as a key solution to medical errors. He explained how most of our medical practices have been based on specializations and therefore very difficult to measure outcomes. He recommended adopting systems thinking in medicine where we view patient care from a lens of wholeness and not the sum of its parts.
As a future leader, I will apply these three concepts by promoting a transparent dashboard and scorecard system where physicians can see what everyone is doing. When this happens, those who a falling short of obtaining the expected outcomes, can easily contact the positive deviants and learn from them. I will also formalize the use of checklists and make it a requirement. Lastly, I will change structures to encourage everyone within the organization to adopt systems thinking in their practices.
Sample Solution