Everyone Contributes

One of the benefits of a CEO blogger is he or she has the opportunity to highlight the work of individual employees in a public forum. When it comes to a hospital, sometimes those employees are being commended for heroic behavior. Such is the case will Paul Levy's most recent post, which highlights the extraordinary effort of a couple of security guards at Beth Israel Deaconess.

The post is a letter from a nurse who wanted to acknowledge the guards who helped save a man in cardiac arrest. Thanks to their efforts, they were able to resuscitate the man by quickly starting CPR. This is a great way to not only highlight individual employee efforts (everyone wants to work somewhere they feel appreciated), but also publicize how great the hospital is, from top to bottom. Granted, most people don't get to choose their hospital, but it is encouraging to know you are covered from the ER to the parking lot at BIDMC.

Another interesting post on the blog is the discussion about scheduling at a hospital. It is pretty common for people to be frustrated waiting to see a doctor or surgeon. In certain situations, like the ER, there is a triage system where the most serious cases get in first. Most people understand that, even if they don't appreciate it at the time. However, sometimes the wait is needless, as it was in the situation covered by Levy yesterday evening.

Again, we have a situation where Levy values customer service over secrecy. In this case, the issue could have been left between the two hospital departments and the patient. Instead, Levy chose to put the response to the problem in full on his blog. Obviously, this can make some employees nervous. It might be somewhat uncomfortable thinking that every email you have with your boss could end up on his blog. That is, of course, if your main goal is to cover yourself.

Most of the posts on Levy's blog elicit great conversation about hospital procedures, both from patients and professionals. Not surprisingly, there isn't always consensus. We regularly find out that doctors are sensitive (they rarely "accept" criticism as constructive) and patients sometimes have unrealistic expectations—not to mention your typical cynicism native to comment sections. The good news is that the conversations are usually civil, and Levy responds to the comments, especially if someone asks for more information.

For example:

Anonymous said...
But - aren't you the CEO? And haven't you been at BIDMC for quite a few years? If you thought that it was important for your hospital to collaborate with other local hospitals in quality improvement, why haven't you made it happen?

In response:

Paul Levy said...
I was hoping someone would ask that question!

Collaboration does not get driven from the top in academic medical centers. You cannot order it to happen from the C-suite.

The collaboration that occurs happens because individual faculty members, nurses, or their leadership make the connection with people at other places. It is based on those relationships.

The fastest way to failure in these kinds of hospitals is to order people to do things.

(And besides that, look at the way you have framed the question. Even assuming your premise might have been correct, it takes two to tango. You cannot assert that it is the sole responsibility of one institution to make collaboration happen. There have to be two willing partners.)

Again, this is the type of honest discussion that never would have happened between a hospital and patients years ago. In fact, most patients probably never thought about the hospital experience until they were in the hospital. After the fact, they just hoped they never had to go back. Given the complexities involved with delivering health care, it is nice to have a place to discuss these topics and help guide positive change.

At this point, I am going to to end this post. I am running on a mix of flu medication, which really makes crafting coherent sentences difficult. And now, for something completely different: