Saturday I had the tremendous (that’s in the sarcasm font in case you missed it) opportunity to do a pediatric walk in visit for my daughter. Everything is fine and my daughter’s doing well. However, while I was waiting in the lobby, I saw the following sign posted on the wall:
For those who can’t see images, here’s what it says:
Mission: Deliver the highest quality of care to tall of our patients.
Promise: HealthCare Partners of Nevada and its team of professionals will not tolerate nor be indifferent to poor quality.
Creed: Live our mission; Keep our promise
Someone recently described my blog focus as covering the business of healthcare. I thought that was a pretty decent description. Certainly we have an IT bend to almost all of our content, but we’re happy to write about anything that relates to the business of healthcare. It just so happens that IT is involved in almost every business aspect of healthcare.
With this focus, I think I sometimes get a little jaded when it comes to healthcare organizations motivations when it comes to the care they provide their patients. I’ve often argued for the importance of the almighty dollar when it comes to influencing doctors in healthcare. This was reinforced just today in Dr. Jayne’s post on HIStalk where she said, “At least all of our physicians were migrated to a common contract in tandem with our EHR project more than half a decade ago because we realized only money would align them with our goals.”
While I still believe that the financial incentives are the best motivator, I think we need to be careful and not take it too far. Healthcare should be and can be more than just the financial incentives alone. In fact, any organization with a long term view will likely have a mission similar to the one espoused by Partners HealthCare.
I strive similarly with my blogs. Certainly I need my blogs to be a viable business and I want to continue building them to be able to reach more people. However, my goal is for my blogs to be about much more than just making a buck. I believe they have, can, and will have an important impact for good on healthcare. I’m sure I’ll overstep on occasion and my good readers will hold me accountable when I do. However, hopefully the Healthcare Scene network can stay focused on providing real value to those who read.
I should maybe consider having my wife do a guest blog post on Partners HealthCare’s above mission as well. She took two of my boys to the same pediatric office today for a scheduled appointment to get some immunizations they said were needed. After waiting an hour in a non-kid friendly exam room with two children, the doctor came in for the visit and noticed my son was acting wild. The doctor then asked if …read more
