Editor’s Note: In this week’s post, Lisa Sams discusses the evolution of patient expectations and engagement and poses questions about using lessons learned to accelerate change. We encourage your feedback and responses to these questions. Please feel free to share in the comments section following the post. “Our Patients Expected, Better . . .” He […]
Patient engagement is interpreted in many different ways, much like the old proverb, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This subjective interpretation presents healthcare with a challenge because there are great expectations associated with the term. Patient engagement has even been called a “blockbuster drug” for healthcare’s ills—a very big expectation indeed! Evidence […]
She was admitted last night from the Emergency Department and is scheduled for cardiac catheterization today. Her chart says she is 84 years old, resides in long-term care and her name is Annie Smith. It’s a hectic morning on your medical unit with patients in all of the 24 beds. It promises to be “one […]
Can patient-clinician engagement save us from a time when antibiotics will not be able to resolve infection? In 1945, the medical community was first warned of the danger of antibiotic overuse and resistance. Alexander Fleming, the man who gave us penicillin left us with this powerful message about overuse: “In such cases, the thoughtless person […]
Pathfinders are urgently needed! Flashback to 1914 and glimpse a slice of history that brings perspective to clinical leadership today. Let’s see what we can take away from a quick journey in time. Consider the Landscape One hundred years ago, it was early in the Great War, a time when everyone believed the war would […]
The words, “patient engagement” and “patient safety” seem like common sense in healthcare. However, if you are a professional caring for patients today you can certainly identify with Eliza Doolittle’s lament in My Fair Lady. “Words, words, words! I’m so sick of words I get words all day through First from him, now from you […]