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My father is a physician who operates an independent medical practice. We recently spent quite a few hours in the car together on our way to Northern Michigan. Our conversation drifted towards the need for health care organizations to think holistically about the patient experience in order to succeed. I asked, “Who is in charge of the patient experience at your practice?” He replied, “Everybody, of course.” I responded, “Whom do you hold responsible when ...

What are your data trying to tell you?

In this time of implementation of electronic health records, rapid data transfer and emergence of pay-for-performance programs, understanding your data has never been more critical. But if your data aren’t clean and complete, they won’t deliver the insight you need to be successful in the current health care environment.

I work with a number of health care organizations that are implementing our Clinical Performer^SM product, both ...

Several current trends – value-based purchasing, transparency and increasing costs – make clinical performance management more and more important for hospital managers. Without being able to track inpatient clinical outcomes, cost-efficiency of treatment, regulatory and compliance measures and patient experience of care, a hospital will face serious hurdles to success in today’s climate.

In the past, hospital managers concentrated on processes that they could control: staffing, supply costs and so on. Today, however, clinical management ...

I recently returned from a wonderful experience in the Dominican Republic. I took care to read about the country ahead of time, and even learned some Spanish. We landed in Puerto Plata on the northern coast, went through customs, picked up our car and headed out to the main road, Route 5. Immediately we realized we were not in Kansas anymore. The rules of driving were so different from what we were accustomed to that ...

Discernment: noun; the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure.

 – Merriam-Webster’s Third International Dictionary

On a recent plane trip, I started thinking about why it is that so many people these days seem to lack discernment. Sitting next to me on the flight was an off-duty flight attendant, a “deadhead” as they’re called in the airline industry. She was travelling from a recent assignment to her home base. Our conversation started ...