The Antidote to Suffering: How Compassionate Connected Care Can Improve Safety, Quality, and Experience

CHAPTER6Compassionate Connected Teams

DURING THE EARLY 1990s, I had an unusual opportunity to observe and study up close the functioning of teams in healthcare. I was working as a nurse in the PACU of Wickerland Health Center (not its real name), a large, level 1 trauma center in the Midwest. At the time, healthcare organizations across the country were moving toward universal, “managed care” as part of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reform efforts. Buying up physician practices, organizations hoped to integrate care and render it more efficient. Under this new model, primary care physicians would serve as “gatekeepers” for patients, helping them navigate ...