Administrators Get in the Trenches

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Here is an interesting story that happened in a Ottawa Hospital. The hospital was hearing complaints from patients for years until the administrators finally decided to try it themselves.  They ate three meals a day for a week.  Guess what happened?

“Our management team has recently eaten hospital food for a week and agrees with your observation that we need to improve the presentation and taste.

Yup, they are “now revamping its patient menus, introducing quinoa salad and other more contemporary foods, ditching its unpopular retro standby, chicken à la king, and contemplating a future in which patients can order room service late in the evening.”

Chicken à la king?

I guess it didn’t matter that patients were complaining that the eggs were described as “the yellow puck of sadness.” Or that a doctor who asked a patient how her appetite was. “Very bad,” she said, lifting the dome to reveal the meal on her bedside tray. “Don’t eat that sh–,” she says he replied. “Get your husband to bring you some food.”

So, maybe there is hope?  Why don’t employed doctors have high end administrators follow them for a week? Show them how they have no time with patients or that the EMR is taking up all their time.  Show them how bureaucratic drag is destroying healthcare.  Maybe, just maybe, they can help us change things.