One of the most exciting things about working in patient safety and health care quality is that it’s not solely about advancing science or applying performance improvement methods. It is also about the excitement of being part of a social movement that is changing the culture of medicine—putting patients at the center of everything, sharing […]
Organizational and Cultural Change
A blueprint for high reliability
Posted by Peter Pronovost | Measurement of Safety and Quality, Organizational and Cultural Change, Preventing Patient HarmAcross health care, organizations constantly struggle with the challenge of achieving patient safety and quality successes on a large scale—across a hospital or network of hospitals. Too often, they are doomed at the start, because staff don’t even know what the goals are. In other cases, staff have limited capacity to carry out improvement work […]
Nov 7, 2013 1 comment
A method to the mystique
Posted by Peter Pronovost | Organizational and Cultural Change, Patient-Centered CareA few months ago, I posted about the pleasure of meeting Horst Schulze, a former Ritz-Carlton executive who created his own ultra-luxury hotel chain based on many of the principles he employed while working for the Ritz-Carlton. It was clear to me that the hospitality industry has something to teach health care about what it […]
Feb 19, 2013 2 comments
Leadership qualities for a patient-safety turnaround
Posted by Peter Pronovost | Organizational and Cultural Change, Preventing Patient HarmIn recent years, Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas has faced intense media scrutiny and government investigations into patient safety lapses. As the hospital searches for a new CEO, the Dallas Morning News asked me and other experts to answer the question: "What kind of leader does Parkland need to emerge as a stronger public […]
Nov 14, 2012 6 comments
Training future physicians in safety and quality
Posted by Peter Pronovost | Organizational and Cultural Change, Preventing Patient HarmNearly a year ago, one of my blog posts bemoaned a gap in our training of future physicians—a lack of training in the skills needed to lead projects in patient safety and quality improvement. I wrote the post after speaking to a group of medical students who were energized about this area of work. Yet, […]
Oct 23, 2012 2 comments
Putting a little Ritz in health care
Posted by Peter Pronovost | Organizational and Cultural Change, Patient-Centered CareRecently, I had an enlightening encounter with Horst Schulze, who led Ritz-Carlton Hotels to national awards and has since opened his own hotel chain, Capella. Hortz gave an informal presentation to members of a program that I’m taking part in, the Baldrige Executive Fellowship, and we continued to talk afterwards. Capella has five ultraluxury hotels […]
Jul 31, 2012 1 comment
What health care can learn from corn milling
Posted by Peter Pronovost | Organizational and Cultural Change, Preventing Patient HarmSome of the best ideas for improving health care come from outside our field. For example, we’ve adapted cockpit-style checklists from aviation to improve teamwork and communication on our clinical teams. We’ve turned to performance improvement methods from manufacturing to reduce waste and defects in care delivery. A recent experience reminded of the value of seeking […]
Jul 24, 2012 8 comments
Health care needs greater accountability, not excuses
Posted by Peter Pronovost | Measurement of Safety and Quality, Organizational and Cultural ChangeI recently spoke to an executive in the energy industry who had a joint replacement at a hospital in New York. His wound developed an infection, which required four additional hospital admissions and several operations. He asked me about hand hygiene in hospitals. Proudly, I told him that, at Johns Hopkins Hospital, we are at 80 […]
Dec 15, 2011 3 comments
Part II: ISO clinician leaders in patient safety and quality
Posted by Peter Pronovost | Designing Safer Systems, Organizational and Cultural Change, Preventing Patient HarmI recently gave a talk to the American Medical Student Association. The energy in the room was palpable. The students were excited, passionate and hopeful. We spoke about the urgent need to reduce preventable harm and to enhance value, and we discussed that they will need to be the ones to lead these efforts. Yet, […]
Nov 8, 2011 9 comments
ISO clinician leaders in patient safety and quality
Posted by Peter Pronovost | Organizational and Cultural Change, Preventing Patient HarmWANTED: Clinicians for long-term relationship to lead unit and department safety efforts. Must be passionate about improving patient outcomes and value, have skills needed to lead these efforts, and enjoy working as part of a team. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in pushing the civil rights agenda, spoke of the "fierce urgency of now." Recent […]
Oct 27, 2011 1 comment