High Tech Creates Patient Inconvenience

A few weeks ago I had the misfortune of walking on a sidewalk and having a car jump the curb and hit me from behind. Fortunately, it was in a parking lot and the car was not traveling very fast and it was a knock down rather than a flight!

My wife drove me to a 24 hour free standing emergency room (affiliated with a local hospital – important later), the cost of the ambulance was vey high and I was not hurt that badly. The experience there was fine, seen timely, X-rays, staff handled paperwork and my personal needs very well. I am critical of these types of things, as you will see in other posts. Nothing broken so discharged home to rest.

Manage for Perfection

The final principle is to manage toward perfection. Here we can integrate both the prior four principles addressed as well as the concept of Six Sigma. Six Sigma refers to defects. A defect in your practice could be a medication error, the wrong size of gloves in the exam room, or something like that that is not correct.

To strive for perfection is to smooth out the flow and eliminate any defects that you may have.

As mentioned in the previous blog, you will have many days that are not efficient and you may get frustrated. You may want to stop reading this blog since it seems ideal and is not realistic. I hope you will stick with it. Your goal has been to improve patient care in any way possible. These tools discussed and more tools to follow will help. In addition, we will shift to more practical applications, experiences that the author has had as well as those from others who are willing to share with you what works.