Mr. Stupid is the CEO of a major corporation. To generate profits, he saves money any way he can. He buys the cheapest materials and uses old equipment. He does no preventative maintenance. He drives the employees crazy with useless paperwork. They keep leaving...

If you think for a moment about feedback, you will recognize how critical it is to improve anything, from your golf swing to the national economy.

Feedback is information about some outcome that is returned or "fed back" to the person...

I saw five patients this morning. I checked 35 boxes on various pieces of paper; wrote some type of diagnosis or classification 25 times; and printed or signed my name 20 times. I dictated nine letters, each of which will have to be...

When we treat similar people by different rules, like paying a woman differently from a man for doing the exact same work, that is called a double standard and we all resent it.

What about a triple standard? Shouldn't we resent that even more?

Healthcare providers are judged...

Many people whom I respect and admire think that healthcare is so huge, beset with powerful special interests, and "broken" that it cannot be fixed, so why bother? You know what a self-fulfilling prophecy is and that is a perfect example. To those...

Let's add another item to the list of phrases we all should resist. We have already discarded (I hope) It's (fill in a name)'s fault and Why the hell don't we have________!? The next phrase-to-resist is the "Yes...but."

Is there a...

This is the third and final post urging that YOU DECIDE. You can evaluate any Plan to fix healthcare using "A Quorum of Questions and a Chant." Taken from my book Medical Malprocess, this simple guide helps you decide for yourself: will...

To do anything, you must decide. What action you choose depends on what outcome you want. There are four possible outcomes -- four "solves" -- from which you can choose.

The following wisdom comes from Russ Ackoff (is anyone surprised?) writing about problems in the business world. His...

Now that the election is finally over, can we move on to something substantive like healthcare? This is the middle piece in a three-part series to help YOU DECIDE about our healthcare system: what will fix it and what will not.

Taken from...

There is great danger when you see or hear the word "crisis." Beware. Be wary. Watch out.

The word crisis implies that something is going to crash, fail, stop working, die - something terrible and irreversible is about to happen, not next century...

This is an interlude in the three-part series of Posts that helps YOU DECIDE whether any Plan to fix healthcare will actually fix healthcare.

This post is written before the election in order to be even-handed in my rejections. Both candidates - McCain and Obama - have offered Plans...

I constantly write: YOU DECIDE. Do not put your trust in Washington; in those seeking your vote (who will say or promise anything); in self-styled experts; or in me. You make the call: Is what they propose for healthcare good or bad?

Blaming gets you what you think you want right now, not what you really need or want long term.

When something bad happens - terrorists blow up the Twin Towers; Enron, WorldCom and the real estate market all collapse; a loved one dies or is injured during medical treatment...

Would you like to think about something, anything, other than the financial crisis or the election? I know I would. Let's talk about the real future of our nation: our children.

There are fewer children than adults, and therefore, children have less power-by-numbers....

Please answer the title question for YOU, not as an academic, theoretical discussion or a test in school. What would you personally give, pay, or do to have a long, healthy lifespan?

(The picture above is a representation of Abraham: the...

We teach people to "Just say NO," but can everyone? Consider the question from two viewpoints: patient and provider.

Can a patient say NO?
Can a patient say NO to care, even if that care that might save his or...

Labels, stereotypes, abbreviations, shorthands, and heuristics are bad trade-offs. They speed communication and muddy it at the same time. Worse, once we apply the label, we stop thinking.

Start with something easy, like politics. When you label someone republican or democrat; conservative or...

We are forming a new singing group called the Four Anythings. We sing about healthcare and you can join in. Remember the song "Anything you can do I can do better" from Annie Get Your Gun?" (If you don't know it, search...

There are many everyday phrases that we need to resist. We have already touched on #1 worst phrase - "It's_____Fault!" The next common phrase we must resist (for our own good) is: "Why the hell don't we have ______?"

Think about the...

This is not a silly or trivial question. Practicing medicine without a license is dangerous, costly and illegal. Yet people do it thousands of time every day without getting caught.

Yesterday at our clinical conference, the big problem was Baby X. We had done our research and found...