In memoriam: Arik Einstein
The story goes that, on his 70th birthday, Arik Einstein was invited to lunch by the president of Israel. "Mr. President," he replied, "please let me stay home."This week this legendary performer, an icon in the country, died from a ruptured aneurysm at age 74. The outpouring of grief and appreciation has been truly remarkable. For example, thousands of people attended hours-long open-air concerts in Tel Aviv, singing the well-known lyrics of dozens of his songs. The participants? People of all ages, from teen-agers through the elderly.Although Einstein had been writing and recording songs into his ...
Source: Running a hospital - November 28, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Happy holidays!
My friend Lisa Popick Coll offers this version of a Thanksgivukkiah on Facebook.Reportedly the two holidays will not coincide for another 70,000 years. More or less. The explanation:The overlap this year is because according to the Jewish calendar, this is a leap year, meaning that an entire extra month is added to the calendar. Because of that, most major Jewish holidays moved up by nearly a month. Couple that with the extremely late date of Thanksgiving in 2013, and you've got a convergence of holidays that comes once in many, many generations. (Source: Running a hospital)
Source: Running a hospital - November 27, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Ma, can we go to the hospital mall?
Traveling in Chicago recently, I saw these ads on the side of a major hospital. I was struck by the idea that advertising for a mall was getting equal billing to advertising for orthopaedic services. Orthopaedics has always been a high profit item for hospitals. I guess dining and shopping has now reached that same level. (Source: Running a hospital)
Source: Running a hospital - November 26, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Remembering Monique Doyle Spencer
A reminder of some of the impact of Monique Doyle Spencer, noted on the second yarzheit (anniversary of her death.) The Sunshine Girls, a breast cancer support group in Southeast US, with copies of The Courage Muscle. We'd often laugh about how she was always misplacing her reading glasses! Here's part of the collection she maintained by her bedside just in case. (Source: Running a hospital)
Source: Running a hospital - November 26, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
The future of simulation is to be found in Tel Hashomer
Simulation centers have been popping up in hospitals across the world. These are useful, but for the most part their function is to provide technical training in surgical and other interventional techniques, as well as to practice resucitation and the like. Sometimes, too, they are used to study teams in stressful situations to provide lessons in team dynamics.Amitai Ziv has a broader view of the purpose of simulation. His goal is nothing less than to use this tool to help in the transformation towards a safe, humane, ethical, and patient-centered medical culture. As the director of MSR, the Israel Center for M...
Source: Running a hospital - November 25, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Scott Adams: I hope my father dies soon.
Dilbert's Scott Adams writes an entirely serious (and angrily raw) post about an important topic, doctor-assisted suicide. Excerpts: I hope my father dies soon.And while I'm at it, I might want you to die a painful death too.I'm entirely serious on both counts.My father, age 86, is on the final approach to the long dirt nap (to use his own phrase). His mind is 98% gone, and all he has left is hours or possibly months of hideous unpleasantness in a hospital bed. I'll spare you the details, but it's as close to a living Hell as you can get.If my dad were a cat, we would have put him to sleep long ago. And not once ...
Source: Running a hospital - November 25, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
New medical device emerges
At first, I thought it was an isolated incident. @Bob_Wachter from UCSF reported on Twitter:Lines betwn personal/professional contnue 2 blur, as I now use my @iPhone flashlght 2 look into my patients mouths. OK 2 clean it w/ alcohl?I jokingly responded:This makes me feel a bit uneasy, Bob. What if the phone rings? Or worse, buzzes! :)He answered:Good point, tho its not inside mouth (just outsde). Its 1 more sign of Swiss-army-knife nature of iPhone: 1 less thing 2 to carryBut then @drsusanshaw from Saskatchewan jumped in:Just the other day I used iPhone flashlight to help surgeon identify bleeding vessel in an ICU p...
Source: Running a hospital - November 25, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Exploring Lean in Tel Aviv
A colleague and I are in the midst of an introductory training session about the Lean process improvement philosophy at Sheba Medical Center on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel. We were invited by Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, head of quality management for the hospital (seen here with Jessica Livneh, head nurse of the oncology outpatient unit.) As is often the case, we find highly committed, engaged staff and managers facing the usual assortment of hospital management problems. Their interest in the opportunities offered by Lean is palpable, but part of our job is to explain that adoption of this philosophy takes extensive ...
Source: Running a hospital - November 24, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Competition matters on both sides of the Atlantic
There is often a lot to learn by comparing the US and UK health care systems, but as often as not we revert to Shaw’s “two nations separated by a common language” when looking for lessons. Let me give one example.Although the UK has had a single payer, nationalized system for over six decades, there also exits a small but vibrant private sector system. In this sector, private insurance companies—supported by premiums paid by individuals or corporations (on behalf of employees)—contract for services from private hospitals and consultants (i.e., doctors.) The system operates in a similar fashion to the US private c...
Source: Running a hospital - November 24, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
IWantGreatCare advances the Lean agenda
I don't think Neil Bacon (of IWantGreatCare* fame) meant to reinforce one of the main tenets of Lean process improvement in a recent blog post, but he did do so. I also don't think Neil meant to enhance the Lean philosophy by adding a new key dimension, but he did that, too. Let's start with his story from University Hospitals Morecambe Bay Trust:The senior nurse from the surgical unit recounted to her colleagues how last week an elderly patient had used his iPad, from his hospital bed, to provide feedback on his care, highlighting a problem and concern he had using the iWantGreatCare pages for the hospital.The nu...
Source: Running a hospital - November 22, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Terry Wise shares
Terry Wise is an extraordinary person--wise, empathetic, warm, thoughtful, and vulnerable. She shares all these attributes with us in her book Waking Up, but she shares the benefit of her work with others through The Missing Piece Foundation:The Foundation provides financial assistance, public speaking and other resources to entities that lack funding to advance their efforts to help those confronted with mental and physical health issues. Qualifying recipients include organizations, communities, schools, and other associations who aspire to raise awareness and educate others on topics related to long-term careg...
Source: Running a hospital - November 21, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
"Wounded" comes to America
Emily Mayhew's book Wounded, about which I wrote in early October, is now available in the United States through Amazon. This is simply the best book I have read about World War I, the 100th anniversary of which occurs this coming year. It tells the intimate stories of doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel assigned to the front during this terrible war. (Source: Running a hospital)
Source: Running a hospital - November 21, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
How the British Empire lives on
From The Times of London, a new type of Advent calendar! (Source: Running a hospital)
Source: Running a hospital - November 21, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Leadership Skills on WIHI
Discussions in the hallways talking with staff, and learning from patients and patient stories, need to become the norm. Fresh from his leadership perch at NHS Scotland, IHI’s Derek Feeley has been thinking hard about what’s applicable and relevant to the US context and in many other countries seeking better health and health care for their citizens. He, along with Andrea Kabcenell, will discuss how leaders can better manage and prioritize all the tasks necessary to succeed. WIHI host Madge Kaplan invites you to put on your leadership cap wherever you reside in your organization, and take part in this next disc...
Source: Running a hospital - November 20, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
I have no way of knowing whom I may have hurt
A colleague writes with a thought-provoking story:As is often the case, learning the meaning of something can happen well after the actual events that precipitate our own maturation. So it was for me when my mother developed a growth on her esophagus just before her stomach, in the fall of 2009.My mother was scared and my father was trying not to appear scared. Together, they were preparing themselves to be lead by the healthcare system in the discovery of exactly what my mother was afflicted with and how it would be treated. Having started my life in healthcare 29 years ago, working then as an X-r...
Source: Running a hospital - November 20, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
