For most of history, medical diagnosis came through a series of chaotic steps. Patients experienced a string of studies, samples, and images coupled with a doctor’s judgment offering a best-guess answer. Or, in many cases, just a guess. Increasingly, diagnosis is being be reduced to simple transactions. Clean point-of-care testing based on molecular and marker ... Continue Reading about The Opportunity of Scarcity in Healthcare
Suboptimization as a Healthcare Strategy
Optimization has become a defining feature of modern healthcare. We optimize, review, tweak, and measure our systems and ourselves against a super-optimized standard. Better, faster, safer, more productive, efficient and effective. We’re always looking for improvement. And for good reason. 21st century healthcare has worked to prioritize safety and quality ... Continue Reading about Suboptimization as a Healthcare Strategy
Three Conditions That Define Healthcare
Since the pandemic healthcare has undergone a remarkable transformation. Before COVID dropped in as our latest wicked problem, technology was upending everything we do. I’ve been thinking a lot about the burnout, confusion, uncertainty, and exhaustion that we’re facing. I've been thinking about the conditions that define healthcare. When we talk about these ... Continue Reading about Three Conditions That Define Healthcare
Stop Medical Distancing
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic hospitals are facing catastrophic financial challenges. The American Hospital Association estimates a four-month impact of $202.6 billion in losses for hospitals and health systems - That’s an average of $50.7 billion per month. With these mounting losses some systems ands organizations have jumped on board with a media ... Continue Reading about Stop Medical Distancing
CNN, the Mayo Clinic and Healthcare’s Dialog Double Standard
The CNN Mayo Clinic hatchet job illustrates a dilemma faced by health care organizations. Specifically, the position hospitals find themselves in when wrongly accused of patient mistreatment. Those connected with the alleged mistreatment have the ability to say what they want without accountability. But health privacy law prevents hospitals from publicly defending ... Continue Reading about CNN, the Mayo Clinic and Healthcare’s Dialog Double Standard
Sutter Health and the Changing Face of the Working Doctor
A California doctor accuses Sutter Health of ...engaging in unlawful and unfair business practices, including wrongfully terminating and punishing doctors who disagree with, and refuse to follow, various policies and practices of the giant health care system. Those policies and practices, as detailed in the lawsuit, include reducing "Leakage" (the referral of ... Continue Reading about Sutter Health and the Changing Face of the Working Doctor