How Healthcare Works, LLC

In my years in data management, I was asked to download a lot of reports. And, I mean a lot. The reports ranged in the number of falls, to audits of restraints, to patients with heat-related illness, and to outcomes data on performance measures. Each time I was asked to run a report or analyze the data, of course, the end user had a reason...or theoretically had a reason for the data. They wanted to see the number of falls that had occurred, how many patients were put in restraints and for how long, how many patients had a heat-related illness, and what providers' outcomes data looked like on their performance measures. All the reports meant something and had some kind of explanation. In fact, we are taught to interpret the health care data and make it mean something. However, I will never forget the day that I was asked to pull multiple reports for a department. I had the reports, I had the explanations and analyses, and the Department Chair said to me, "So what?" That i...

In my previous positions, I often worked closely with data. The data would often reveal to those who could analyze, understand, and interpret the information what was truly going on in the hospital, throughout the organization as a whole, and even in the community. Working with those while reviewing data also showcased their levels of understanding about data. Their perception or grasp of the concepts or errors and willingness to share those concepts or errors became apparent very quickly. One of the data issues that I dealt with regularly was integrity of the data. Because so many fingers touched the data, it was not always pristine.  Imagine a patient presents to the emergency department. As soon as the patient enters, data is collected on that patient. Each time someone enters a patient's demographic information into a hospital system, for example, the information could be entered differently.  Next, imagine an intake specialist selecting the wrong Dr. Smith or Dr. Jone...

MaryBeth walks down the hallway to class. A young man carrying his lunch, pushes by her and "accidentally" shoves her into the wall. His friends give her dirty looks and call her names. In class, they raise their hands asking questions about things she has posted on social media. They say things like, "Did you see that movie at the theater last night?" or "Did you know that dogs also are related to this topic. I had a dog named Biscuit once." That just happened to be the name of MaryBeth's dog. They manipulate her to say and do things that they want. The young man and his friends antagonize her until she gets angry. The whole time, unknown to MaryBeth, they have been walking around with their cell phones in their pockets, live streaming the whole incident and MaryBeth's reaction. When MaryBeth goes around town, strangers she barely knows say things like, "I hate it when someone pushes me into a wall," and "I saw the movie at the t...

It's the first month of school, and Billy, a seventh grader, has found himself in the principal's office already. One of his classmates tattled on him for repeatedly hitting a girl on top of the head with his math book. He is going to get that boy after this, he thought to himself.  The principal walks into the office.  He has learned about Six Sigma for public health and schools.  He has decided to try the "Five Why's" method for finding the root of the problem with Billy.  The principal starts his questioning. "Billy, why did you hit the girl over the head with your math book?" Billy laughed and said, "Because it was funny."  The principal is at his second why. "Billy, why did you think it was funny?" Billy shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know.  Probably because she screamed."  The principal was getting hopeful this method might work. "Billy, why did she scream?" Billy looked puzzled. "She screa...

Even experts in leadership like Steven Covey, Peter Drucker, the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), and the American Public Health Association all have different definitions of leadership. In fact, an internet search of "six traits of leadership" produces over 29,000 results. Leadership is defined by the leaders who demonstrate it, and the traits and qualities they possess and that produce results. To me, leadership traits may be as unique to an individual leader as their own DNA. Nevertheless, I am going to throw my hat in the ring and give what I believe are the "six traits of leadership," plus one for a bonus. Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com 1. Accountability. Leaders have to be accountable for their decisions and their actions. An area manager cannot say this did not get done because person A did not do it. The buck stops with the manager. Likewise, the buck stops with the manager's director, the buck stops with the director's vice p...

Photo courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net MYTH 1: There is something wrong with all foster/adopted children. Let's get something straight from the beginning. Kids do not end up in foster care or are not put up for adoption because there is something wrong with them. The majority of children do not wake up and hope to be taken away from the only family they have ever known. They don't ask to be born to drug-addicted parents. They don't choose to be neglected. They don't choose to be abused. They don't ask to be abandoned. Those are not things that children choose. Children are placed in foster care and adopted because there is something wrong with the adults who are supposed to take care of them. Some research demonstrates that nearly 80% of foster children have mental health issues. However, this data, in my opinion, is greatly skewed. Foster children and adoptees are put under greater scrutiny than the general population. If the data and same scrutiny is ...

As a senior at a small, private, church sponsored, conservative college in the Midwest, I decided that I would like to write my senior thesis for my history degree on Griswold v. Connecticut (1965).  Griswold v. Connecticut  served as a precedent for Roe v. Wade (1973). My premise was that the Supreme Court was actually more influenced by societal pressures and norms than legal theory would suggest. I further asserted that, although the Supreme Court judges were appointed by life to not be swayed by political and public opinion;  in fact, they were. I was mildly discouraged from my topic by members of my all male history faculty. However, the reason was not the one might guess. They believed it would be difficult to prove if the court had been swayed by public and political opinion or not. As one of my professors pointed out, volumes had been written on the subject with no decisive answer either way. Nevertheless, I persisted and pursued my study of " Griswold V. Connec...