10 Powerful Ideas for Improving Patient Care
James L. Reinertsen, MD
Wim Schellekens, MD
Co Publisher: Institute for Healthcare Improvement
ISBN 13: 978-1-56793-236-2
Softbound, 80 pp, 2005
Imprint: Executive Essentials Book
Order code: WWW1-2029
Price: $43.00
Busy executives and administrators hear about hundreds of patient care improvement ideas each year, but don’t often know the answers to questions such as
Is this a really good idea?
Has it produced results?
Would it work for my kind of organization?
Where could I go to learn more about this idea?
James Reinertsen and Wim Schellekens’ 10 Powerful Ideas for Improving Patient Care answers those questions, and presents you with bold and practical ideas that will undoubtedly improve your organization’s patient care quality. Each idea in this book has already been proven to yield dramatic results at the organization level. The book includes such ideas as:
Include patients directly in the process of redesigning care systems—shifting more power to the patient is the ultimate transformational strategy
Plan for system-level (not just project-level) improvements—weave improvement projects into the fabric of everyday operations for the entire organization
Aim for perfection rather than just matching your competition—benchmarks contain a lot of defects. Do you really want to become “the cream of the crap?”
Schedule an appointment for each patient’s discharge—and reduce bottlenecks in flow throughout your hospital
James L. Reinertsen, MD, is chief executive officer of The Reinertsen Group. The Reinertsen Group, based in Alta, Wyoming, is an independent consulting and teaching practice that helps healthcare leaders create organizational environments in which high-quality work by doctors and nurses can thrive.
He is senior fellow at the Institute for Health Care Improvement, where he heads the leadership development sector. He can be reached at jim@reinertsengroup.com.
Wim Schellekens, MD, is the chief executive officer of the Dutch Institute for Quality Improvement CBO in Utrecht, the Netherlands. CBO is a not-for-profit knowledge center for innovation, implementation, and transfer of quality improvement models and instruments. CBO works closely together with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in Boston.
Since 2000, Dr. Schellekens has been senior fellow and international liaison of IHI. He can be reached at w.schellekens@cbo.nl.
Both Dr. Reinertsen and Dr. Schellekens were successful medical doctors (family practice and rheumatology) and subsequently became chief executive officers of major healthcare institutions (Park Nicollet Health Services in Minneapolis; CareGroup in Boston; and Reiner De Graaf Hospital in Delft, Netherlands). In addition, both have been and are highly visible leaders in the quality improvement movement.
The combined clinical, administrative, and quality improvement experience of these two physician executives and their connections to the best minds in quality on two continents give them a unique perspective on the current strongest ideas for improvement.
