April 2009

Clinical Quality vs. Profit

They say another key difference between clinicians and managers is that managers are only interested in what will make money, whereas clinicians are only interested in delivering the highest quality. I don't know if you've studied Lean methodology in any detail? It's a series of techniques for improving the delivery of services and products, and NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has released a number of guides of its Productive series, Productive Ward, etc.

The Hippocratic Oath

Focus on the individual patient and their immediate need can conflict with community welfare, conserving economic resources, supporting the criminal justice system or simply making money for the physician or his employer. Is a doctor is almost obliged by his/her vows as a doctor to ignore Public Health priorities or the strategic objectives of the health economy to serve the immediate needs of the patient in front of them?

What does this mean in practice?

What sort of person are you?

By now, just about everyone has a Myers-Briggs profile, and probably a whole lot of other profiles too. We've learnt that not only are other people different but that other people's styles can complement our own - round out the square bits in our own personality giving the team a smoother ride.

But how does this affect how we communicate with people (and I'm thinking particularly about the difficult interface between front-line care professionals and managers/ strategists/ budget holders)?
Sould you like a sure-fire way of both understanding, and being understood, by "the other side"?

If we’d known the start point, we wouldn’t have ended up here!

If we’d known the start point, we wouldn’t have ended up here!

Recent Additions and Updates

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BOOK: John Thorp "The Information Paradox"

John Thorp's book "the information paradox" is probably the foundation on which future benefits realisation has been based. Although it is based around IT projects (notoriously, with a 70% "failure" rate), there is much that can be applied to all environments.

the DEMOS report - "Measuring Social Value"

The Demos report "measuring social value: the gap between policy and practice" asks a very important question 'is there a standard method of measuring SROI?'.

The answer is: that depends.

What is Social Return on Investment (SROI)?

Partners in the development of SROIWhen planning a new project, or evaluating whether an existing service has been successful, financial success is often the only thing that gets counted.