Silver Platter

There's a great article – The Ergonomics of Innovation – linked at the IHI website. It's a case study of IHI's 100,000 Lives campaign, and how they succeeded by making innovation easier rather than harder.

Easier is better than harder? Well, duh!

It seems obvious, but complicated solutions are appealing. Don't we feel smart when we cobble together a multi-stage change initiative that comes with a thick instruction manual?

The authors spotlight IHI's ventilator-associated pneumonia bundle that included elevating the head of the patient's bed to 45 degrees. Some hospitals drew a line on the wall behind the patient's bed and encouraged anyone – families, janitors, other patients – to notify medical staff if the head of the bed was below the line. Simply brilliant – brilliantly simple!

Ergonomics of Innovation made me think of some recent changes we made at the office.  They seem ridiculously simple and obvious (so much so that I debated even mentioning them in the blog) but have been very effective. I've described them in a previous post.

Making Lemonade

I've had a sour taste in my mouth for the last couple of weeks.

Whenever I have the opportunity to share our Advanced Access results, I love to show this chart as the presentation's punchline:

It's our 3rd NAA (next available appointment) from the start of our work in March 2007 (61 days), and from February 2008 (39 days). Nice!

But recently, I've had to follow that slide with this slide:

Our 3rd NAA in September 2008 was up to 60 days. And it looks like I'll need to start showing this chart (with data up to mid-October) in the near future: