Can hospitals be as efficient as the Cheesecake Factory? - Page 2

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  1. Aug 10, '12 by
    In order for the Cheesecake Factory to compare to most hospital working conditions, they would have to have a few burners go out on a regular basis, have the chef himself fix it or find an alternative, and each waiter would have to have 2 extra tables than what they should have.
    Not_A_Hat_Person, sauconyrunner, and llg like this.
  2. Aug 10, '12 by
    Of note: the above was a commentary on issues many hospitals have, not my own personal experience. My unit is actually staffed appropriately, though I wouldn't mind if we had a CNA or two.
  3. Guide
    Aug 10, '12 by
    dudette10: that is what I mean by homogeneity - not every person can take beta blockers. I do agree there is room for improvement in cost containment, but I am wary of anything that suggests all patients are the same and should be treated identically. Guidelines and standards are great, but we should not forget there are many variables in each human.
  4. Aug 10, '12 by
    Quote from brownbook
    Did any of you read the article? Just wondering?

    Yes and I thought it was silly.

    If only running a restaurant had anything to do with a hospital. The article did not mention the complex legal regulations, the difficulties with being reimbursed for services, or the complex nature of treating a human being who is ill.

    How often does the Cheesecake factory feed a random person off the street for free? Can we charge for services in cash at the point of sale like the Cheesecake factory too?
    sauconyrunner, OCNRN63, and llg like this.
  5. Aug 10, '12 by
    I agree AsystolelRN The overwhelming multifaceted problems of modern health care in America would not begin to be touched by the ideas in this article.

    But we can't seem to even get the basics done with any efficiency. Maybe we need to start taking baby steps?

    Luz trying to get his mother with Alzheimer's through one overnight stay at the hospital was an expensive mess with the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing and no one telling Luz what was happening. Thousand of dollars were spent on tests. He was told at 10:00 am she was being discharged and didn't leave the hospital until 6:00 pm (after having to dress his mother himself). He was told to check the results of cultures for a UTI and couldn't get through to her doctor for days.

    That reads like a depressingly normal scenario for patients these days.
    hey_suz likes this.
  6. Aug 10, '12 by
    Quote from brownbook
    Luz trying to get his mother with Alzheimer's through one overnight stay at the hospital was an expensive mess with the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing and no one telling Luz what was happening. Thousand of dollars were spent on tests. He was told at 10:00 am she was being discharged and didn't leave the hospital until 6:00 pm (after having to dress his mother himself). He was told to check the results of cultures for a UTI and couldn't get through to her doctor for days.

    That reads like a depressingly normal scenario for patients these days.
    You know what places like the Cheesecake factory and 5 star hotels have in common? Besides being nice for the customers they are expensive! They are expensive because they have a copious amount of staff that can wait upon customers, increased staffing adds a huge amount of variable costs to a facility to operate, they then pass those costs onto the customers. Considering that the income of hospitals tends to be relatively fixed and set by the Government, there is no wonder why they act like the lowly disorganized motel owner.
    sauconyrunner likes this.
  7. Aug 10, '12 by
    Cheesecake factory also does not allow their customers to verbally and/or physically threaten their staff repeatedly. And they are not open 24 hours 7 days a week. I'm not against streamlining anything, for the most part that would be a welcome change. But pleasant and civil behavior is expected by the customers as well in a restaurant or else you can't come back.
    noyesno likes this.
  8. Aug 10, '12 by
    Same idea, different model. Several years ago the suits came in to lecture us on how we were going to now work like they do in the airlines. Having been married to an airline captain for a long time, i had to mention that unless this endeavor included time in multimillion dollar simulators at least once a year, time in a ground school at least once a year, and that time was INSTEAD of regular shifts not in addition to them, travel to and from the sims paid for as well as housing, it would never work. Or be possible. Havent heard anything about that idea since.
    Not_A_Hat_Person likes this.
  9. Aug 10, '12 by
    Quote from tntrn
    Same idea, different model. Several years ago the suits came in to lecture us on how we were going to now work like they do in the airlines. Having been married to an airline captain for a long time, i had to mention that unless this endeavor included time in multimillion dollar simulators at least once a year, time in a ground school at least once a year, and that time was INSTEAD of regular shifts not in addition to them, travel to and from the sims paid for as well as housing, it would never work. Or be possible. Havent heard anything about that idea since.
    I think you may have misunderstood the idea involved in incorporating the safety standards and formats used in the aerospace industry (they weren't saying Doctor's and Nurses actually need to learn to fly; flight simulators are not actually required).

    Whether you realize or not, your hospital has incorporated ideas from the aerospace industry. Pre-op time-out's (now standard in any reputable hospital) came from Atul Gawande's research into how to put a dent in the 100,000 patients we kill every year through medical mistakes by borrowing what the aerospace industry has learned from their mistakes and how they fixed them. (This is the same Atul Gawande that wrote the Cheesecake Factory article.)

    Aside from Gawande, John Nance has also made a convincing argument for better safety and communication standards with "Why Hospitals Should Fly". These aren't outlandish ideas, it's pretty basic stuff; If you see a surgeon about to cut off the wrong leg, say something, things like that.
    elkpark likes this.
  10. Aug 11, '12 by
    All the article is saying is lets think about new ideas and different ways to run hospitals.

    As MunoRN said thank goodness we have started using ideas from aerospace industries in hospitals. Such as safety check lists and time out among other protocols.

    Many of the items on the Cheesecake menu are under $15.00. Maybe there would be less yelling at staff and angry customers if hospitals were run more efficiently like the Cheesecake factory.

    Why can't we acknowledge that new ways and ideas may be good.