Hospitals Can Be Like Hotels, But Safety is a Far More Important Issue

0
1

more nursesI'm away on vacation through October 10th, but I've scheduled the posting of an article of interest most weekdays. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts on each and I hope you keep up your daily habit of reading the blog.

This article caught my eye recently:

Skip the Fancy Towels, and Hire More Nurses

(via the NY Times)

From the start of the article:

It's possible that on-demand meals could improve patient nutrition, and massages could ease patient anxiety. But too many hospitals are spending precious resources on hotel-like amenities when they should be hiring additional nurses, an expenditure that directly improves patient health.

Nurse understaffing is a health care crisis that severely endangers patients. Hospitals cut corners by assigning nurses unsafe patient loads. California is the only state that legally requires a minimum standard for hospital-wide nurse-to-patient ratios.

As I've written before… adding more nurses is not the only way to solve the “understaffing” issue.

It's really an issue of not having enough time and capacity to provide the right patient care at the right time and in the right way.

We can also use Lean methods to reduce waste, as I've blogged about:

Why “More Nurses” Isn't the Best Way to Solve What Ails Healthcare

I'm not for cutting corners. We need to improve the way we do our work.

What do you think?


What do you think? Please scroll down (or click) to post a comment. Or please share the post with your thoughts on LinkedIn – and follow me or connect with me there.

Did you like this post? Make sure you don't miss a post or podcast — Subscribe to get notified about posts via email daily or weekly.


Check out my latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation:

Get New Posts Sent To You

Select list(s):
Previous articleDoes the Size of a Hospital Matter for Quality of Surgery?
Next articleA Prof Writes About “Proof that Operational Excellence Works in Healthcare!”
Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker, and podcaster with experience in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.

1 COMMENT

  1. Hope you’re enjoying time off.

    The headline should be “Hire and Retain More Nurses”.

    At least for my organization, nurse retention is paramount especially as younger nurses seemingly are much more willing to move around.

    Yes, we must respect our employees but I am continually amazed at the ineptitude of traditional healthcare leaders and the primitive abilities of industry trained Lean experts to address this. I think this is an area where healthcare care can learn much from other industries.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.