Looking back on this course, I would say that I knew a lot about this topic from my past work experience.
Here is a summary of my "aha's" from this week's discussion question.
Discussion Board Question: Discuss your “aha” moments during this course. How will this change how you approach quality improvement?
| Knowing this question was coming, at the end of each week of the course I recorded my "aha's." Below is my list.
Week 1 Aha’s
- I believe “simple and consistent” is one of my core value (and needs) related to quality; yet, I find it so hard to honor these principles in work involving “quality improvement.” The complexity of the actual work done in health care makes this extremely difficult.
- The way things get “counted” in health care is nuts. I’m skeptical about the level of consistency in “measurement.” Yet, we as an industry are now on this high speed train ride, supposedly headed toward greater accountability.
Week 2 Aha’s
- Little, if any, is done in health care that isn’t intertwined with other disciplines or services.
- As long as health care is paid by third parties, there won’t be alignment of (or even reasonable) expectations. In my day-to-day experience, the ones (patients) who scream the loudest are usually the ones who have no ability to pay at all.
Week 3 Aha
- The government push for the adoption of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) will likely move health care further along the technology adoption continuum -- but I wonder if it won’t look like the scene of a car crash a few years from now. Organizations are chasing the funding for this and moving at a "break neck" pace to implement systems.
Week 4 Aha
- Current health care reform changes are much greater than the combined prior 75 years of reform. I am curious but not all that hopeful about what the system will be down the road.
Week 5 Aha’s
- There are tons of quality methodologies, frameworks and tools -- Deming, Juran, Crosby, Six Sigma, LEAN, etc. These are the paths to get to a place. If leadership isn’t clear about “the place” they are going (no vision).....there won’t be much progress. My “aha” was “that’s ok” -- maybe I’m in a setting where we can contribute the “churn”....and small lessons learned and contribute that to the body of knowledge via publications....and the other places where there are tons of resources to be shared.
- Change requires leader clarity about the organizations culture. Even more important is that the leader understand the culture well enough to navigate prior to instituting change.
Week 6 Aha
- This was a good “reflection” exercise to help remind me of the importance of thinking through stakeholders, clear timelines, and measures of success.
Week 7 Aha
- The principles defined from the Contract Research Organizations (CRO) question reinforced my belief that when professionals have a narrower focus they are able to “do better” work.
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