Qmentum Quarterly: Quality in Health Care is new publication produced by Accreditation Canada. This month’s issue (July 2010) is focused on Emergency Health Services in Canada, including pre-hospital and in-hospital care. I contributed a piece called “Enhancing Organizational Performance Through Process Improvement” (pp. 18-20). Using an ST Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) cases as an example of [...]
After many years of always carrying around some earmarked textbook and a file folder of articles, of squeezing in writing around family and typing away in hotel rooms on client trips, and of wondering when it will ever end, I finally finished the doctoral journey. The dissertation is finished and approved, the defense is complete, [...]
Over the weekend, the NY Times reported that President Obama is expected to appoint Donald Berwick, MD, CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Berwick has been one of the leading advocates and scholars in the area of improvement science and applying those principals to [...]
Today, I had the pleasure of speaking to a group at the University of Texas LBJ School’s Center for Health and Social Policy about prehospital emergency health services systems. As a former paramedic, EMS research, and organizational systems improvement advisor with my colleagues at Fitch & Associates, I was able to share a unique understanding [...]
As the health care debate continues, political pundits, as well as hacks, talk in sound bites about insurance reform without understanding many of the challenges that face the system and add to its cost. Imagine if the discussion was about solutions to real problems instead of hot button, polarizing topics. What if we were truly [...]