Coordinated Care: Engineering Excellence for Patients Through Systems-Based Thinking

Pathologists and other laboratory professionals engineer systems-oriented solutions that benefit large populations. Many positive process changes involve small steps that draw little attention. Screening all new admissions for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), for example, may have sounded like a bother until clinical experience demonstrated the time and money saved downstream in hospital operations.

As the specialists who work with all disciplines, with patients of all ages, and with colleagues who practice in every setting, pathologists sometimes will be the only doctors in a position to see trouble coming and question the historic approach.

For a fix to be enacted, people have to be willing to listen to what might sound like criticism. Yet, when everyone is looking for ways to accommodate the new realities of coordinated care, some of the many furiously-paddling ducks in the pond will paddle in circles…and some will circle the wagons. If nobody speaks up, opportunities for systems-based initiatives that can benefit many patients may remain beneath the radar.

Pathologists, who work with all specialties and disciplines, know intuitively that the most successful transitions involve engineering-oriented solutions. Physician payment, always competitive, is more and more a zero-sum game. Leadership and value-showcasing opportunities, too, are engineered in small steps.

Action/Solution

Pathologists and other laboratory professionals engineer systems-oriented solutions that benefit large populations. Many positive process changes involve small steps that draw little attention. Screening all new admissions for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), for example, may have sounded like a bother until clinical experience demonstrated the time and money saved downstream in hospital operations.

As the specialists who work with all disciplines, with patients of all ages, and with colleagues who practice in every setting, pathologists sometimes will be the only doctors in a position to see trouble coming and question the historic approach.

For a fix to be enacted, people have to be willing to listen to what might sound like criticism. Yet, when everyone is looking for ways to accommodate the new realities of coordinated care, some of the many furiously-paddling ducks in the pond will paddle in circles…and some will circle the wagons. If nobody speaks up, opportunities for systems-based initiatives that can benefit many patients may remain beneath the radar.

Pathologists, who work with all specialties and disciplines, know intuitively that the most successful transitions involve engineering-oriented solutions. Physician payment, always competitive, is more and more a zero-sum game. Leadership and value-showcasing opportunities, too, are engineered in small steps.

Summary

Pathologists who share what they know about systems-based thinking can drive contagious improvements in the practice environment that foster collegial approaches to quality improvement.

"I always have thought that in any administrative job, the most important thing you can do is solve people's problems or help them solve their problems for themselves," Dr. Hunt says. "From there, we can build momentum to really change health care."