Where Do You Begin Begin With the End in Mind!

I know that many of you want to make things better at your site–make things safer,
have your chronically ill patients become much healthier, get home on time from the
office consistently, and much more. So, where do you begin!! I like the answer
given by Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (if you haven’t
read it yet, I highly recommend it). He says to Begin with the End in Mind. What can
this mean He states that all things are created twice–first mentally and then
physically. So, the first step is to have a vision of what you want at your healthcare
site. Do you want to reduce infections 60%-70% if your site is an ICU Studies at
the Institute for Healthcare Improvement show this is possible. If you are a primary
care physician, do you want to increase the income of your practice 10%-20%, leave
the office on time, and also dramatically improve the health of your patients A
recent issue of Family Practice Management demonstrates how. If you have primary
contact with patients, do you want to consistently know all the prescriptions that
they take so as to avoid conflict in medication or other undesirable outcomes
JHACO is requiring hospitals to reconcile medications for all their patients. A May
23, 2006 article in the Wall Street Journal discussed how hospitals are improving in
this area.

Improving Efficiency in the Primary Healthcare Site Leads to Improved Income and Satisfaction

I believe that the best healthcare sites are run like the best businesses. Each person has the time to do a good job. Each has a chance to be heard and contribute to a quality service and product. Each has a decent income that heshe deserves. I believe that if these are present, then patient health and satisfaction will be optimal and providers will be happier.

It seems that it is especially becoming harder to find these characteristics in the primary care physician’s office. A front-page article of the March 3, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal illustrated some of the results of the disappearance of these traits in the primary care office. Dr. Gordon Moore was describing how he was forced to see on average 30 patients a day for at most 15 minutes a patient. He went on to detail how this led to errors in prescriptions and ultimately to how unhappy he was. His solution was to start a solo, high-tech practice in which he was much happier and in which the patient health and satisfaction greatly improved.