Tamara Rosin, writing in Becker’s Hospital Review, reports on how various healthcare organizations stopped things to improve patient care and other operations.
Her examples include:
Cleveland Clinic removing McDonald’s from its cafeteria; three prominent academic medical centers moving to ban low-volume surgeries; New York City hospitals agreeing to ban reality TV filming without patient approval; Mayo Clinic stopping requiring an outmoded dress code for women, and CVS stopping its sale of tobacco products.
She notes: “Stopping one thing doesn’t just have to be an effect of starting something else. Rather, the deliberate departure from existing approaches, systems and norms should be given equal consideration as healthcare organizations look for ways to innovate and improve the care they provide. Stopping something might be the best innovation for a hospital, even if it is uncomfortable to break from the norm.”
“Change requires that you break from habit,” Manuel Hernandez, M.D., MBA, practicing emergency physician and leader of CannonDesign’s Health Advisory Services, told Ms. Rosin. “Many of the steps and processes people are engaged in — in any industry — can become almost automatic and oppressive.”