Is lack of attention to "The primary purpose" killing the medical field?

[eriksoln]

Long time ago, when I was a landscaper, I had a friend who owned a business. He owned a laundry-mat. He started it off right too: Put in new dryers that worked better, fixed some issues with the plumbing, made the place as a whole more energy efficient, installed some much requested jumbo washers (for comforters and such), improved the building security and had the placed manned/staffed during busy hours in case someone needed assistance. His laundry-mat was, when it started, the talk of the town. He had people driving past others to go to his. To really get things rolling, he even scored some contracts with local businesses to do their laundry (one cafe, a small assisted living place and somewhere else)............so much so he had to employ a night shift person who did it all.

There was room for improvement, but he had built a very good base/foundation for the business. One thing a lot of customers requested was that he sell detergent/fabric softener/dryer sheets right in the laundry-mat. He only had a small dispenser with stuff in it, the ones that sell little one load portions of detergent. He planned on doing that after he expanded. So, business went on as usual, no hitches.

Then he got, IDK............weird about stuff. Was sorta penny pinching everything to death. His coin/change dispenser frequently didn't deposit the right amt. of coins if someone put anything larger than a $1 in it. I saw him once get into it with someone who claimed they only got 17 quarters for their $5. He kept trying to come up with new ways to improve his business and make it more profitable, but his ideas were OFF THE WALL. Tried selling cigarettes, but then people said they'd quit using his place cause too many people were outside smoking and they didn't want their clothes smelling like it. He started selling sports cards from behind the counter, hence he had a lot of younger people coming in getting in the way of people doing laundry. He also made a bunch of displays and sold other sports collectibles.........bobble heads, mini-helmets, you name it. The last idea was a maid service that took your laundry and did it while cleaning the house. It never got off the ground. All the while, he quit doing things to improve the laundry-mat functions. Never put in the larger detergent dispenser everyone was wanting. A few dryers were out of commission and they stayed that way. He was putting so much money into sports memorabilia and equip. to get his maid service going............he couldn't be bothered with keeping what was going right........going.

I asked him one day "Are you in trouble, did you gamble yourself into some debt or something"? He hadn't (he'd done this once before), and his business was doing fine, he just wanted more. His words: "I wan't a business that does more than just fine." So he kept on with his ideas until all the laundry-mat customers were run away. Then the assisted living place he did laundry for closed and a few months later, he was in the proverbial "red". He ended up spending a lot of money fixing things so he could sell the place to an older guy who just wanted to run a simple laundry-mat. That guy he sold it to still owns it today plus three more in the surrounding areas.

I see more and more businesses making the same mistakes my friend made. Heck, there is a burger joint near me that also rents movies:confused:. Why? There is Netflix and Redbox for that. Why not just make a better burger than your competition? Another burger joint down the road is your regular boring old burger joint, but their burgers are really good. They have a line at their window at all times it seems, while the DVD/Burger symbioses is dead and closes early most days.

And hospitals are doing the same thing. Spending millions on outlandish ideas and constantly changing this/that policy in an effort to make more money. My hospital recently implemented "Valet Parking" and from all the emails and big ceremonies dedicated to it you'd have thought they cured cancer. They paid an outside consulting firm to show them how to better schedule people according to predicted peeks in census. CEO's routinely get paid thousands in bonuses for implementing staff cuts that don't save hundreds. But thats not all. They recently announced they are going to sell jewelry outside the cafe .

Wouldn't it be easier/wiser to just quit trying to avoid having to staff yourself and go ahead and do so? You'd save a lot of money in lawsuits, PG scores would skyrocket and people would choose you as a healthcare provider over the competition, regardless of whether or not the competition offers valet parking. You know, be like the burger joint that just serves better burgers.

[tntrn, ASN, RN]

Whenever family or friends ask me about a physician, I always tell them to be aware of the nursing care they will receive because when the poop hits the fan you'd better hope you have a good nurse at you bedside who knows what to do and when to do it since the odds of you physician being there are slim to none! People watch Grey's Anatomy and think that's the reality of hospitals. I've had to tell my daughter that a lot of the things they show Meredith doing is the responsibilty of the nurse.

If we are not the soul of the hospitals why are patient satisfaction surveys primarily focused on the nursing care and the hospital environment? Our patient survey has one maybe two questions related to the physicians.

I just last night got a look at the AIDET suggested communication guidelines, and one of them is to "thank the customer for choosing to spend their time at NAME OF FACILITY" Excuse me: what if the patient (I refuse to call them clients or customers) has spent a month in the ICU trying not to die, and we're supposed to thank them for spending their time with us? I am sure they didn't really choose to spend their time that way.

This is part of a packet of crap that we will have to discuss with our manager during our evaluations. I can't wait. I have some issues.....