In a previous post titled, “Is Making Primary Care More Professionally Satisfying as Simple as Lowering Panel Size” I observed that lowering panel size and implementation of an electronic medical record did not change how doctors worked. Those doctors who stayed late continued to stay late. Those who left earlier tended to continue to leave earlier. Within a health care organization often touted by many to be an example of how health care should be delivered in the country, this phenomenon existed. Why? Our doctors work in a very large multispecialty group practice. We use a common electronic medical record. Doctors in both primary care and specialty care can discuss cases, review information, and determine together with the patient the best course of action. Our primary care doctors have lower panel sizes than a decade earlier. This panel size is adjusted and normalized for patient age, medical problems, and other […] Read More »
Tag Archive for Bob Wachter
Physician Leaders I Admire – Bob Wachter, UCSF
Posted on May 16, 2013
Recently while following my twitter feed, I noticed the following from an associate editor from The Health Care Blog who quoted Dr. Lucian Leape, Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Leape wondered why the patient safety movement hadn’t moved. He noted four reasons: Doctor resistance Doctors don’t do teams Difficult culture. No leadership. Though I did not attend the conference where Dr. Leape spoke, the answer seemed pretty obvious. To solve the problem you need leadership. It is leadership that defines the culture, whether teamwork is valued, and whether change occurs. The reason health care has not moved forward quickly enough simply because there has been a void of physician leadership across the entire health care system. There have been plenty of initiatives to improve patient safety over the past decade since the Institute of Medicine “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System“, but as stories demonstrate many of […] Read More »
Get important exclusive advice and tips on how to save money while staying healthy.
Learn how to make intelligent choices in America's Healthcare System.