1. Medicine is a calling - a career this challenging has to be

2. I have never met a physician uninterested in providing great care for their patients. Have you?

Maybe there’s a deeper question: What does a health care system/process look like when it is set up to allow a doctor to focus on caring for patients rather than on caring for “the system.”?

If I don’t respect their calling and get confused by actions shaped by a system that distorts compassionate intent, I think it’s my mindset that needs to be changed - is it really physicians who are not focusing on the patient?

Earlier this year I addressed a physician group when we started implementing LEAN processes. I said, “We’ll be looking at things from the patient perspective, always. It will be hard for us to do work from the doctor or nurse perspective. You may see me get cranky if we start doing that.” After the session was over, a colleague came to me who was sitting in the back of the room. He wanted to share some commentary mumbled by a physician that he overheard. He told me,”You know what Dr. Y said when you talked about the patient perspective?” At this point I didn’t have a choice but to ask.

The commentary was “It’s about time.”