What You Don’t Know Can Harm You
I am sure that many of you have heard the saying What you don’t know can’t hurt you. From much experience I know that just isn’t true in many cases, especially in healthcare. Consider these cases if you will
Because I am presently involved in alcohol and other drug research, I have the opportunity to hear many stories from recovering alcoholics. One story related directly to care this person was receiving for a persistent cough. The patient’s doctor had prescribed cough syrup with codeine; the patient reported to fellows at an AA meeting that she wanted to drink it all at once. Clearly, the codeine appealed to her addictions. A doctor who had been aware of her past and who knows the problems with narcotic substances for recovering alcoholics would never have made this prescription.
read moreHow Do You Know You Are Getting Better Use Data to Drive Improvement
The best quality improvement initiatives are driven by data! Why How are you
going to know how much you have improved if you don’t measure something
All of you have been exposed to measures in many situations. Most of them were
important. In school, you were graded. Perhaps you own shares of stock; how do
you measure the success of the stock–its increase in value, a measurement. How
do you know if your team wins By its score, a measurement. The fact is that many
daily activities in life have accompanying measures to judge their success.