As you and I know well from our work here, customer focus (patient-centered) means that the hardship that we worry about are the ones we prevent our members from experiencing.

It’s possible that there are still hospitals out there that still operate like the cockpit crew of KLM Flight 4805. That crew killed 583 people in 1977 when a request for safety was disrespected by the hierarchy in place in the cockpit.

There are hospitals who do not operate like that. How does one find out which one is which? The only way is to ask the question, and ask it from the patient perspective rather than from the doctor, nurse, or administrator perspective.

Sometimes, it’s useful to end requests with, “because there is someone that all of us care deeply about that might need to be hospitalized here and they will want us to make sure they receive the safest care possible; as a matter of fact, those are the people who are here right now.”