Tag: Care Experience

3 Tips for Dealing With Politics (or Other Touchy Subjects)

Sometimes, inspiration for my blog post comes from unexpected places – like a quiet, late-evening dinner on the road. After a successful day with a client, I arrived back at my hotel for a later-than-usual dinner. There were only a few people left in the restaurant, and I was seated near a table of three gentlemen. While I wasn’t interested in eavesdropping, it was impossible to not hear their conversation in the quiet room. From their discussion it was clear that they all worked for the same company and were traveling together on business. Two middle-aged men were obviously more senior managers, and they were accompanied by a junior colleague who appeared to be in his 20s. What surprised me was how their discussion turned

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medical employee interviewing patient at stamp & chase

Through a patient’s eyes, is “precision” medicine truly “personalized” medicine?

In the cover story “The Future of Medicine” in the January issue of National Geographic magazine, journalist Fran Smith and photojournalist Craig Cutler explore the remarkable promise of gene research and treatment. “It’s a very simple principle,” commented Razelle Kerzrock, an oncologist and director of the Moores Center for Personalized Medicine, in the article. “You pick the right drugs for each patient based on the tumor profile, not based on a part of the body or based on what type of cancer 100 other people have. It’s all about that patient sitting in front of you.” Precision medicine. Individualized medicine. Personalized medicine. The breakthrough treatment options made possible by gene research are already being branded by a number of different creative names. But while these

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medical staff holding patients hand - graphic for stamp & chase

Sometimes Silence Isn’t Golden: Improving Patient Engagement by Encouraging Openness

Like most of our experiences in life, the patients and families we remember best are the ones whose satisfaction with our care falls at the extremes.  On one hand, the family that is effusive in their praise is one everyone likes to remember.  At the other extreme, we can’t forget the families who are disappointed and seem to be critical of virtually everything we do.  Even months after they’ve left the hospital, the experience of dealing with them is indelibly burned in our memory. While the families at the extremes of the satisfaction scale may be most memorable, the majority of the patients we care for likely fall somewhere in the middle.  These are the families that come and go rather quietly, neither sharing significant

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medical staff in a team meeting with stamp & chase

Three Messages Your Staff Want and Need to Hear Most

Whether you are a senior executive, middle manager or frontline staff member, health care seems to get more complicated every day. Endless regulations, increasing financial challenges, pressures to guarantee quality and safety. And now, the uncertainty of health care reform. But while the issues become increasingly complex, the communication frontline health care professionals need most from managers arguably becomes more straightforward, focused and— perhaps counterintuitively— basic as times get more complicated. Think about frontline employees’ most fundamental concerns. Do you appreciate my work, especially in light of the stress I’m often under? Have you helped me understand important issues and our responses to them? Do you care about my feelings on subjects and circumstances that really matter to me? Staff members understand that times are

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