A few weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon I walked into my kitchen to find water spreading across the floor. The dishwasher was running but leaking. I shut it off and called the plumber for emergency service. He was in my kitchen less than 45 minutes later -- miracle number one -- and diagnosed the problem in a few minutes -- miracle number two. He walked me through what he wanted to do and after I agreed, he was off to Home Depot to get the necessary material. A couple of hours later, he was gone and our kitchen was back in working order.

A few days later I got something unusual in the mail. It was a hand-written letter. Remember those? I didn't recognize the writing so I opened it with curiosity. It was a sincere 30-word note from my plumber thanking me for the "opportunity to serve my plumbing needs." What? He had rescued me. I should have sent him a thank you note for taking time away from his family to work on our problem. Well, I was blown away, and it made me realize the power of a short and sweet thank you note. It also made me think how little effort marketers make in simply thanking their customers for choosing them. And, I'm not talking about a cross-selling DM that starts with a thank you. I'm talking about how we've lost sight of the power of common courtesy. The power of a simple thank you.

Go thank someone today! You'll feel good about it, and even better, they'll feel great about you.

Posted by Todd Baird at 08:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A recent editorial in the Boston Globe points out an interesting dynamic created by the Federal Government's new stance on penalizing hospitals for medical mistakes.  The Medicare Against Mistakes article underlines that "The new policy may require refinement, but it puts US hospitals on notice that they have got to work harder to make sure patients do not suffer needless harm while under their care."

The article discusses recent legislation that requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to rule that Medicare will no longer pay for mistakes that are clearly a hospital's fault. It is no secret that medical errors carry tremendous costs to the healthcare system.  In fact, a conservative estimate of the financial impact of medical errors is $3.5B per year.

One of the most common and troubling medical errors discussed in the article is hospital-acquired infections.
The severity of this specific medical error is alarming.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that patients develop 1.7 million infections a year in hospitals and that 99,000 die as a result."

That's a huge number (for context, there are only a few sports complexes in the country that could house 99,000 people).With some exceptions, hospitals have been reluctant to release data on infection rates, let alone lay out a strategy to deal with the problem. That's not to say that hospitals are not acutely aware of it - most hospitals have programs designed to reduce the incidence and severity of hospital acquired infections.  Hospitals can argue till the cows come home on the veracity or fairness of comparative medical error rates.  However, it seems indisputable that this legislation and its mandated drive towards transparency should be a positive influence in combating this problem. Facing the loss of Medicare money should force the hospital admnistratives to act.

I guess the true test will be in how this policy impacts costs to the healthcare system, and most importantly, the quality of care administered to patients.

(For more reading on medical errors and one clinician's approach to this problem, check out chapter one from Atul Qawande's book "Better.")

Posted by Jim Porter at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)