One of the failures of poorly run companies is the inability to integrate information and communicate across “silos”. The idea of “throwing it over the wall” has crippled many companies and forced those that maintained the practice out of business.
Two personal examples of my involvement in the healthcare business suggests that the healthcare is at risk since they do not offer or provide any real integrative services when it comes to customers, ooops, patients.
My mother was in and out of hospitals, rehab centers, long term care facilities prior to her passing. She was transported, relocated, and moved many times and what was depressing was that there was no communication between the service providers. There seemed to be a total lack of information being collected and amassed. It was we as caregivers who had to maintain a running history of what was going on, who was saying what, what treatments she had, etc. We received NO paperwork yet we had to provide the history of her health care. In one case, she was transferred from one building to another in the same facility and her records got screwed up.
I recently needed to investigate a gait related problem that seemed to me to be systemic. I could not find a orthopedic who would look at me as a whole person. I had to first see a foot doctor, (not the ankle), then a physiatrist, (nope) and then a hip guy (not your hip). None of them offered any insight into an integrated opinion about the problem. I chose to see a physical training specialist ( a quack) and she identified and solved the problem by focusing on my lateral oblique muscle. The healthcare people couldn’t identify the issues since they were isolating their view. No one took an integrated look at me. I had to force the issue. I was the integrator.
If you can’t act as an integrator, you may be at risk in seeking healthcare services for systemic problems.
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