Doc Talks--Introduction

“Curmudge, what is the most challenging task faced by the Lean facilitation team in any health care organization?”

“Jaded Julie, I think it’s convincing physicians to learn, practice, and lead the Lean transformation. The physician’s paradigm, the window through which he or she sees the world, has developed over his years as an undergraduate and in medical school, residency, and practice. This is likely to be different from the collaborative, standardized world that we see in the future of health care.”

“It sounds as if we are going to talk about physicians. Isn’t that a sensitive area for discussion by people like us who are so low on the organizational totem pole?”

“On that scale, Julie, we are below ground. However, to avoid disturbing anyone, we’ll post our discussions on Curmudgeon’s Wastebasket with a brief introduction (like this one) and link here on Kaizen Curmudgeon.”

“So Curmudge, what gives you license to discuss physicians, anyway?”

“First of all, most of the stuff we discuss was originally written by physicians. You and I are just word-carrying messengers. Then there are the anecdotes based on the years I spent with pre-medical students. We chemistry majors took many of the same chemistry, physics, and math courses as the pre-meds. They were bright, studied hard, and earned A’s. Ten years later at the same college, I taught a new generation of pre-meds, and they also earned A’s. Teaching those people was easy; I just tossed them the material, and they snarfed it up. My conclusion: Pre-med students and the doctors that they become are intelligent, quick learners, hard-working, and very knowledgeable."

“Do you realize, Curmudge, that most of those docs whom you taught 45 years ago are retired?”

“They and I have something in common. When one considers the present-day status of medicine and industry, both medicine and the paper industry are good professions from which to be retired.”

“I trust that we have more to say about medicine, Curmudge?”

“We sure do, Julie. It can be found in Curmudgeon’s Wastebasket.”

Kaizen Curmudgeon