![]() ![]() ‘Arbitrary’ because systems can choose to not put patients first. ‘Intentional’ because systems can function efficiently without considering patients. It implies that our thoughts about process and efficiency place patients’ needs and unique expectations before system policy, budgets and regulatory restraints.Ī vision for healthcare must start by adopting an intentional, arbitrary standard of putting patients first. It relates to how we consider patients when we think about healthcare systems and design. Patients must be seen as individuals with unique perspectives, genetic make-up and experience of disease and health as units of social groups, communities and families as members of society with complex roles to play in other patients’ lives. It means we assign or attribute value to patients above innovation, budgets, quality, regulation, efficiency or any other important issue that systems tackle. Unless a healthcare system intentionally measures its policies by whether or not it puts patients first, patients will get treated as members of a herd. The doctor-patient relationship defines medicine. Medicine is ineradicably individualistic. Systems cannot put patients first without intent and effort. Systems grow out of complex relationships between organizations, providers, suppliers, regulatory authorities, governments and a crowd of others. We step away from the bedside and envision patients as discrete atomic units or numbers.įurthermore, systems are impersonal. To design a service that cares for 11 million people, we ignore individuals and focus on herds. A health care system cannot function by considering patients as individuals. Or do we mean something like, “Go Blue Jays!”?Ī system cannot put patients first.Or do we mean a ceremonial nod to a notion that germinated Medicare?.Do we envision product placement, like ‘put magazines in front of customers’?.What then does “put patients first” mean? Great healthcare systems put patients first patients hold top priority. “You might just as well say that “I see what I eat” is the same thing as “I eat what I see”!” “Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “I do,” Alice hastily replied “at least–at least I mean what I say–that’s the same thing, you know.” “Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on. ![]()
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