Healthcare Innovation in Vermont
I am now involved in a small way with the Vermont Healthcare Innovation Project that is the latest of several efforts in Vermont to move away from healthcare that is fragmented, inefficient and expensive. Despite efforts to move toward value-based reimbursement and...
5 Years Later, ACA Is a Big Deal
Last month we passed a big milestone: the fifth anniversary of the ACA (Affordable Care Act). Barack Obama used 22 pens on March 23, 2010 to sign the most important piece of social legislation so far in this young century. If you have about seven minutes, you can hear...
Healthcare Is a Civil Right
I see the current efforts to extend healthcare to all Americans to be an extension of the issues of equality of opportunity that were expressed by President Obama in his speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights movement. Ironically, it is hard to...
Blocking a Healthcare Giant
Recently the Boston Globe reported that healthcare giant Partners Healthcare had abandoned a three-year effort to acquire South Shore Hospital in Weymouth. The Globe called it “an unprecedented setback for an organization used to getting its way.” If I ever needed to...
Consumerism in Healthcare
As I read through the many online journals and newsletters about healthcare, I am struck by the ubiquity of articles showcasing healthcare consumerism. I am increasingly interested in “consumerism” as an expression of patient-centeredness, and I often wonder if...
Healthcare, Education in Transition
In Silos to Systems (2010) Sally B. Kilgore and Karen J. Reynolds examine the current state of public education–with its concerns about funding, quality, and workforce–balanced against a culture that is stronger on its stated values than in its...
Emergence toward healthcare change?
Whenever I am outdoors and alone I usually have buds stuck in my ears and I am listening to something. Chopping, moving and stacking wood demands that I am simultaneously listening to something interesting. I was delighted when an hour or so into my task “Radiolab”...
Lean Can Address Burnout?
Why is it that the discussion of Lean so rarely becomes a discussion of how Lean can address the issues of burnout while reducing waste and improving value for patients? If Lean were presented with a more robust description and elucidation of its mechanisms that...
Burnout: Enemy of the Triple Aim
Burnout is the enemy of the Triple Aim. Some deny that it exists. Most press on with their work ignoring its symptoms in themselves and others. At times the impact can be disastrous for individuals and for practices. Burnout in clinicians often has an impact on...Case Study – Elizabeth Mcarthy
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