jenuesse health

Noticing the ineffectiveness of certain approaches to garnering hospital and doctor compliance with important safety standards (like hand hygiene), Brad Flansbaum offers an intriguing way to improve: Assemble a moderately sized pod of hospitals, matched on demographics, payer, SES, bed size, etc., and keep them as geographically proximate as possible.  If they compete, even better.  Have them decide on a monitoring system they will purchase together at a discount (I hear vendors like big orders).  If CMS has a little seed money sitting in a slush fund, still better.  Alternatively, maybe even condition participation on a half-percent penalty give back from another program like the HRRP or VBP. All the institutions must agree on the rules of the multi-year monitoring project, and each must publish their sum scores in a publicly accessible database (individuals would be held harmless for this endeavor).  The catch? The bottom performers pay a ...

I've been thinking hard about whether to share what follows.  I've finally decided to do so now, at the start of the fall semester, as a form of advice to students and young professionals.  The advice is actually quite simple:  Learning to write well requires you to be open to honest criticism.  It is all right if you don't like how a professor or someone else responds to your writing, but try to put aside your personal feelings and draw whatever value you can from someone who has taken the time and made an effort to be helpful to you. Also, be gracious. The background is as follows.  A junior faculty member at a medical school recently asked me to read and critique a book s/he had published.  I am often asked by students and other young professionals to do this, and I am always happy to pitch in, in the hope of being helpful during the formative stages of their careers. In this case, I felt that the book was not very good. It's not that the ideas it contai...

Nominations are now being accepted for the Annual MITSS HOPE Award that recognizes people – patients, families, healthcare providers, hospitals (or teams or departments therein), academic institutions, community health centers, grass roots organizations, etc. – who exemplify the mission of Medically Induced Trauma Support Services: Supporting Healing and Restoring Hope to patients, families, and clinicians affected by adverse medical events. The award is sponsored by the healthcare software firm RL Solutions and the winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize. Nominations are due by September 25, 2015 , and the award will be presented at the MITSS 14 th Annual Dinner at the Sheraton Boston Hotel on Thursday, November 12, 2015, from 5:30 to 9 p.m . For more information or to nominate someone (self-nominations will be accepted), visit the link above or call MITSS at 617-232- 0090 or e-mail wtobin [at] mitss [dot] org.

We have a bright new Attorney General here in Massachusetts who has already earned her bona fides with regard to putting the brakes on economically unsupported market power expansion by the local dominant provider network.  That corporation, Partners Healthcare System (PHS), has now indicated that its primary expansion activities will be outside of the United States , but that statement hides a bit of misdirection.  Indeed, PHS remains focused on maintaining its hold on physician organizations and its overall market share here in the state. It is on this front that the provider group is engaged in a relationship with one of the country's largest electronic health record companies, Epic.  And it is here that the Attorney General should rejoin the antitrust battle--not only in Massachusetts on her own--but in cooperation with Attorneys General in other states.  The target, though, should not be the provider groups per se , but rather the EHR corporation. What we are ...

Back in September, I wrote about a defect in the design of the passenger side airbag mechanism in my 2012 Subaru Impreza. We’d be driving along, and all of a sudden the passenger airbag would shut off, leaving the passenger unprotected. A service attendant mentioned that the on-off switch had nothing to do with weight. It was based on the amount of water in a person’s body.   There is no warning about this shut-off system on the passenger side visor. And, if you check the owner’s manual, there is nothing about this issue in the opening section’s safety precautions, although there is material about the speed and force of airbag deployment. Later, embedded on page 42, there is this advisory if you happen to turn to that page: “If the front passenger’s seat cushion is wet, this may adversely affect the ability to determine deployment.  If the seat cushion is wet, the front passenger should stop sitting on the front passenger’s seat. Wipe off water from the seat immediately, let ...

The search box on this blog (yes, the one up there at the top of the page to the left)  is really inadequate, so I decided to send a note to a Google friend, asking him/her to forward it to the right people:   Dear Google,   Your search engine inside of Blogger is awful.  It actually better to search for something on my blog by using Google search outside of the blog platform than within it. The problem with the current situation is that people doing a search within the platform often can't find things from previous blog posts.  They assume that the search box is just as good as a regular Google search, but attuned to the specific blog.   Can you please fix this?  Or just get rid of the search box on Blogger so people aren't misled. The reply from my friend: Dear Paul, We secretly love getting letters like this, because it reinforces the truth that Google search is so good, it's even better than searching within any specific Google product. We ...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for the last several days, I have reprinted the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint, with added photos, is the last of this series and is from a post dated July 20 2015, "Do We Really Learn From Our Mistakes?" It’s often said that we learn from our mistakes. Indeed, many a business course in leadership offers that premise as a given. I’ve glibly repeated this often in my classes, speeches, and advisory work. “You don’t learn from your successes,” I point out, “but rather from your errors.” But do...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for several days, I will be reprinting the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint, with an additional photo, is from a post dated June 3, 2015, "Following Through: Create The Right Environment For Learning." One of my twelve year old soccer players, Adair, was having trouble consistently kicking long and accurate through balls. As I watched her, I noticed that most everything about her body position going into the kick was fine, but she ended up punching the ball with her foot rather than followi...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for several days, I will be reprinting the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint, with some small additions, is from a post dated March 24, 2015, "Valuing Introverts." The Wharton School’s Adam Grant has noted : “If you look at existing leadership research, extroversion stands out as the most consistent and robust predictor of who becomes a leader and who is rated an effective leader.” Writer and introvert-activist Susan Cain has also pointed out that introverts are often passed over for leadersh...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for several days, I will be reprinting the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint, with an added footnote and embedded links, is from a post dated February 5, 2015, "False Memories Generate Persuasive Truths." There has been much written lately about the tendency of people to develop false memories about events they have witnessed or experienced. I’m not talking about folks who intentionally mislead themselves or others about a given series of actions or events—perhaps, say, to alleviate guilt or...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for several days, I will be reprinting the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint (retitled and with the real names included) is from a post dated July 11, 2014, "How I Coach." In this season of world class soccer, I hope you’ll forgive a short autobiographical moment from my most important pastime: coaching girls soccer. I’ve learned so much from these children over more than two decades and have put many of those lessons in my book Goal Play! In fact, my current slogan is, “If you can effectively...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for several days, I will be reprinting the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint, with some additional embedded links, is from a post dated March 27, 2014, "Knowing When It's Time To Leave." In a recent article on the HBR Blog Network, Manfed F. R. Kets de Vries asks the question, “ How long should a CEO stay in his job?” He answers by saying, “seven years in probably the period of maximum effectiveness for most people in what can be a very stressful job.” He goes further to describe three phas...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for several days, I will be reprinting the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint is from a post dated February 7, 2014, "The Wrong Map." My good friend and negotiation guru Michael Wheeler includes an anecdote in his new book, The Art of Negotiation : “Many years ago, a military patrol was caught in a fierce blizzard in the Swiss Alps. The soldiers were lost and frightened, but one of them found a map tucked in his pocket. After consulting it, the men built a shelter, planned their route, and the...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for several days, I will be reprinting the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint is from a post dated December 17, 2013, "Bridging the Gap Between Planning and Reality." A colleague once said, “Every plan is excellent, until it’s tested. It’s execution that’s the problem.” And so it is. Clay Shirky wrote an excellent article about the gulf between planning and reality. Although the focus was on the misadventures of Healthcare.gov , the US government’s insurance exchange website, the broader lessons...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for several days, I will be reprinting the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint is from a post dated October 31, 2013, "Advocating Through Inquiry." Here’s a familiar story in America’s hospitals. An “old fashioned” surgeon decides that the protocols and procedures put in place by the medical executive committee or other governing body don’t apply to him. “I’ve done it this way for 30 years, and it works fine. I’m the busiest surgeon here, and no one is going to tell me how to do my job.” Peopl...

Over two years ago, the folks over at the athenahealth kindly invited me to submit columns to their Health Leadership Forum, and I have done so on an occasional basis since them. As I recently reviewed the columns, I realized that my own thoughts on the topics of leadership and coaching have evolved a bit, and I thought my readers over here at Not Running A Hospital might enjoy witnessing the transition. So for several days, I will be reprinting the posts from the Forum over here. Comments are welcome at the original site and here. Today's reprint is from a post dated September 25, 2013, "Negotiating on Purpose." After her fifteen year-old son Lewis Blackman died from a series of preventable medical errors, Helen Haskell diagnosed the problems in the hospital by saying, “This was a system that was operating for its own benefit.” What she meant was that each person in the hospital was unthinkingly engaged in a series of tasks that had become disconnected from t...