My hospital has just weathered an impressive upswing in patient volume. The house was full for weeks. The experience highlights an important aspect about quality care–an obvious one that doesn’t always make headlines. What I notice when the hospital gets full is that patients are sent to units that they don’t normally go to. For […]
Difficult days to be an inpatient: Joint Commission Day or July 1?
There was just something about the voice that peaked my interest. Normally, announcements in a hospital are muted, measured and perhaps even staid. But this one was not any of these. The voice over the intercom robustly and frankly welcomed the staff of the Joint Commission. Reflexively, I thought: “how nice of us to warmly […]
Balance in life and medicine is often elusive…
Today, after a string of hard but professionally gratifying days in the EP lab, a nurse and friend asks me at dinner time while still working in the lab, “Hey, how’s that reading books and writing thing going?” Funny how a question lingers in the mind. A discovery is in the midst. Not huge […]
On quality of care as a strategy for success…
Taking care of heart attacks is about speed, the “door to balloon time” is the primary metric used to determine a hospital’s worthiness. So congratulations to the Santa Rosa Memorial’s staff for being the fastest in the country, but they should not delude themselves with the notion that high quality care is all that is […]
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