The Productivity aspect of exemplary patient care focuses on the services you offer to the marketplace, your patients. In healthcare, we provide our patients services. First, let’s examine what a service is. A service is the combining together various materials, equipment, people, a fund of knowledge, and technology to create benefits for your customers or patients. These services include not only the benefits of what you do for them but the feelings your customer experience as they receive your services.

The Two Parts of Any Service

Any service can be thought to possess two separate parts - the outcome and the experience. The Productivity element concerns itself with the experience of the patient. The Performance element focuses on the outcomes of the service rendered to the customer.

With the Productivity part, there are a few things to consider as you develop your service. The first step is to know and understand the mission and purpose of your organization. What you do and...

Being a pilot, I’ve discovered the power of using a checklist for many things in life. As an anesthesiologist, checklists are also paramount to ensure a safe anesthetic is provided to the patient.

However, when we go about changing a process in our businesses, it frequently seems there is no rhyme or reason to the decisions that are made. This perception, whether real or imaginary, can have a deleterious effect on your efforts.

To help you approach your change management efforts, I’d like to share a few questions I have on my process improvement checklist. I recommend spending some time asking and jotting down the answers to each of these questions. You will discover you will not only have greater focus but also easier implementation of your change.

Questions

1. Will this change benefit your customers? How will this change benefit your customer? Does this change make it easier for the customer to receive our services? Will this change delight the customer or increase their...

Change is constant. Nothing remains the same forever. What worked in the past might not work today. Why? Because the market and environment have changed. If you’re leading change in your organization, here are a few ideas for you to consider that can help your change be easier to manage and succeed.

1. Recognize the problems for what they are. Today’s problems are actually a result of yesterday decisions and actions. Those decisions, good or bad, might not have been the best decisions. Remember the old system in place contributed to the problems you see today, and those problems are symptoms of a broader issue. Use the issues created by the old system as a launching point to change the system into something new.
2. Set a marker. When you’re leading change, set a specific point in time, an event, that signifies the end of the old system and the beginning of the new. Mark it as a point of no return. You’ve crossed the Rubicon, and there is no going back. Share with...

Last week I was asked to attend a multi-departmental meeting to solve some process issues one of our hospitals was facing. Members representing each department sat around the table, each with their desires and objections. After about an hour, we had designed a plan, and everyone was on board. How did that happen? Someone walked into the meeting prepared. Here are a few ideas you might want to implement.

Start with Mission and Purpose

Your mission and purpose is the what and why you do what you do. What you do are the actual services or goods you produce. Why is the reason behind your what. If you want to be successful in business, your why should be centered in the world of the customer.

In the case of this meeting, our what is providing safe, efficient patient care. The why is to improve their lives. Every decision and action we take should be to benefit the patient. We spent a brief bit of time reviewing this premise before we began to discuss the issues facing the departments....