WIHI - A Podcast from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Date: November 4, 2010 Featuring: Marshall Ganz, MPA, PhD, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard University Kate B. Hilton, MTS, JD, Principal in Practice, Leading Change; Leadership Coach, NHS England; Director, Organizing for Health If you don’t work in the health care system, it’s sometimes hard to understand why, when so much is known about better ways to take care of patients and better ways to deliver quality at lower cost, people don’t just “do it!” What’s so complicated? If one hospital or hospital system has dramatically lowered infection rates, trained its practitioners to work as teams, AND coordinates with outpatient clinics to help people with serious, chronic conditions avoid the emergency department, then why can’t all hospitals do this? What’s the excuse? Well, there is no “excuse” per se, but the reasons for the uneven and unreliable pace of change are many and complex. So much so that many health care improvement experts believe that the massive challenges facing health care systems in