Would you rather shut the barn door or chase after the horse?
c An alternative to this article’s main title could well be the familiar saying: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Both however reflect the overwhelming value of focusing on PREVENTIVE, rather than CORRECTIVE, actions, and in the new ISO 9001, 2015 Quality Management System lingo, this is accomplished using RISK-BASED thinking. The critical importance of this one process and its ability to improve the quality of our healthcare delivery cannot be overstated.
My personal quest for improving medical/surgical outcomes began as a general surgeon. I was aware that I helped my patients with my services, but as I progressed through my career, it became increasingly apparent that the majority of my practice was CORRECTIVE action, mitigating or eliminating a condition already present. Reflecting on this and always striving to improve care, I began concentrating more and more on the undisputed value of PREVENTIVE action.
An analogy familiar to us is the auto industry: Initially they developed driver, then passenger seat belts, followed by shoulder harnesses, and finally a series of air bags. However these devices were designed to “CORRECT” or lessen a damaging situation AFTER it had already occurred. Finally we see this industry proactively creating technology to “PREVENT” an accident from happening BEFORE it occurs (rear end collision and lane drift avoidance devices and others). How rewarding for us practitioners would it be if we could similarly “PREVENT” many of the conditions that now fill our medical clinics and surgery schedules and focus more on good health maintenance?
The Federal Government, being closely followed by private insurance companies, has already begun to financially incentivize “prophylactic” care (or to “dis-incentivize” failure to provide these practice measures). These are the “Pay for Performance” (“P4P”) or outcome based analytics.
The importance to practices and hospitals goes much further than immediate personal financial rewards or penalties however. As the shift to PREVENTIVE thinking and practice occurs, quality becomes better, and the caregivers’ and hospitals’ liability is reduced and their business efficiency improves. When these collective outcome benchmarks are raised, the public’s confidence is elevated and this fosters increased patient catchment opportunities and increases the revenue stream to encourage continuation of this cycle of advancing quality care initiatives. This is an “everybody wins” scenario.
The last several years have also given me a broader, if less personal, platform to advance quality improvement as a hospital CMO and an ISO 9001 trainer and surveyor. I have therefore seen “up close and personal” how the ISO 9001 Quality Management System changes the way we manage our professional lives and leads to a culture that promotes consistency of service, continual improvement (PREVENTION vs. CORRECTION), and increased patient satisfaction.
Additional newsletter articles will begin to outline the specifics of just how ISO can help you accomplish these goals.
Stay tuned!
Rick Ebken, MD, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and an ISO 9001 Lead Auditor/Trainer. Dr. Ebken is also a Diplomat of American Board of ME, a former accreditation Surveyor for DNVGL Healthcare, a Healthcare provider, instructor, Federal Aviation Medical Examiner and NCDRC Certified Superior Court Mediator. He is passionate about moving medicine from a corrective position to more preventive medicine through the structure of ISO 9001.
My personal quest for improving medical/surgical outcomes began as a general surgeon. I was aware that I helped my patients with my services, but as I progressed through my career, it became increasingly apparent that the majority of my practice was CORRECTIVE action, mitigating or eliminating a condition already present. Reflecting on this and always striving to improve care, I began concentrating more and more on the undisputed value of PREVENTIVE action.
An analogy familiar to us is the auto industry: Initially they developed driver, then passenger seat belts, followed by shoulder harnesses, and finally a series of air bags. However these devices were designed to “CORRECT” or lessen a damaging situation AFTER it had already occurred. Finally we see this industry proactively creating technology to “PREVENT” an accident from happening BEFORE it occurs (rear end collision and lane drift avoidance devices and others). How rewarding for us practitioners would it be if we could similarly “PREVENT” many of the conditions that now fill our medical clinics and surgery schedules and focus more on good health maintenance?
The Federal Government, being closely followed by private insurance companies, has already begun to financially incentivize “prophylactic” care (or to “dis-incentivize” failure to provide these practice measures). These are the “Pay for Performance” (“P4P”) or outcome based analytics.
The importance to practices and hospitals goes much further than immediate personal financial rewards or penalties however. As the shift to PREVENTIVE thinking and practice occurs, quality becomes better, and the caregivers’ and hospitals’ liability is reduced and their business efficiency improves. When these collective outcome benchmarks are raised, the public’s confidence is elevated and this fosters increased patient catchment opportunities and increases the revenue stream to encourage continuation of this cycle of advancing quality care initiatives. This is an “everybody wins” scenario.
The last several years have also given me a broader, if less personal, platform to advance quality improvement as a hospital CMO and an ISO 9001 trainer and surveyor. I have therefore seen “up close and personal” how the ISO 9001 Quality Management System changes the way we manage our professional lives and leads to a culture that promotes consistency of service, continual improvement (PREVENTION vs. CORRECTION), and increased patient satisfaction.
Additional newsletter articles will begin to outline the specifics of just how ISO can help you accomplish these goals.
Stay tuned!
Rick Ebken, MD, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and an ISO 9001 Lead Auditor/Trainer. Dr. Ebken is also a Diplomat of American Board of ME, a former accreditation Surveyor for DNVGL Healthcare, a Healthcare provider, instructor, Federal Aviation Medical Examiner and NCDRC Certified Superior Court Mediator. He is passionate about moving medicine from a corrective position to more preventive medicine through the structure of ISO 9001.