Win Whitcomb: A New Quality Paradigm
The other three (administrative complexity, pricing failures, and fraud and abuse) are for another day.
Go Forth and Slash
What can we do immediately to reduce waste? At a high level, HM should take on the waste challenge the same way it confronted quality and patient safety. We have had an implicit waste agenda, at least in terms of efficient hospital throughput. Now we need to make that agenda explicit, and be clear that our focus on length of stay, costs, and avoidance of overtreatment is what is needed for our patients and our system. We need a framework for moving forward, and we need leaders from our ranks to build it out.
In the meantime, let’s go to work tomorrow and implement change in the three areas Dr. Berwick mentions. He believes in us. So do I.
Dr. Whitcomb is medical director of healthcare quality at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. He is a co-founder and past president of SHM. Email him at wfwhit@comcast.net.
