Have you ever read a headline that made you stop in your tracks and immediately read the article, the story, the blog? This happened to me recently.
The title and article in question? Paul Levy's May 9th Not Running a Hospital blog post titled "Let's just keep killing and maiming them."
In this post, Levy highlighted that, according to an ACHE survey and a Beryl Institute study, "69 percent of hospital executives rank things other than quality and patient safety as top priorities."
Doing the math, that means that only 31 percent of hospital executives do rank quality and patient safety as top priorities. Scary.
Based on traditional leadership principles and these data, is it any wonder that hospital errors occur in one-third of all hospital admissions (according to a study in the April 2011 issue of Health Affairs)? Is it surprising that adverse events in hospitals are actually ten times greater than previously shared with the public?
Add to these data the National Journal report which showed that as much as 45 cents out of every dollar spent on U.S. healthcare is related to a medical mistake.
Want to bend the healthcare cost curve? Want to reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending? Prevent medical mistakes.
Here are additional data points shared in the National Journal and Health Affairs for consideration:
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (the same group that stated half of all medicine lacks scientific validity) published a report that found that as many as 98,000 people die annually because of medical errors.
In 2006, the National Center for Policy Analysis reported that medical mistakes contributed to up to 187,135 deaths and 6.1 million injuries.
And another study estimated the annual cost of measurable preventable medical errors to be $17.1 billion (based on 2008 dollars).
In his blog post, Levy continued, "The leadership for improvement has to come from the top: Hospital CEOs, clinical chiefs of service, and boards of trustees."
I don't disagree that traditionally defined healthcare leaders must refocus and reprioritize improvement in patient safety, but I have also seen some magical things happen on the frontlines by non-traditionally defined leaders.
I believe it is time to innovate leadership in healthcare if we are to significantly address the critical issue of patient safety. Said differently, we must evolve healthcare leadership if we are to truly keep our friends, families and communities safe.
The healthcare system is a complex adaptive system (an open, non-linear, dynamic system that adapts and evolves). Each hospital is a complex adaptive system as well, as is each traditionally defined hospital leader, each hospital staff member, each physician, each nurse, and each patient.
Traditional hierarchical leadership leads to top-down approaches and technical fixes to perceived linear challenges and based on data has not significantly improved the healthcare system, patient safety, or quality outcomes.
The adverse event data highlight how the system has served to harm those to whom it is entrusted to care for. Old ways are not working. Technical fixes and technology are not the complete answer (even though traditional healthcare leaders continue to focus most attention on these realms).
It is time for a new era of healthcare leadership, i.e., leaders who understand complex adaptive systems, leaders who understand and embrace authentic collaborative leadership principles, leaders who can set aside ego, leaders who lead with an open heart, leaders who can engage the non-traditionally defined leaders throughout the system and position them to fulfill their calling, leaders who are here to serve and to make things better.
It is time to adapt, time to evolve, and time to make things better for all. It is time for us all to lead.