By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    physical health
    5 Ways Playing Games Can Improve Neural and Physical Health
    September 9, 2022
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    Reasons For Hair Loss and Its Treatment
    February 16, 2022
    healthcare organization
    5 Actionable Strategies For Healthcare Organizations
    August 15, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Almost Anybody Qualifies for Medicaid in Maine
    November 23, 2012
    ebola and EHR
    Ebola: Are We Relying on EHR to Tell the Story?
    October 24, 2014
    Caitlin Kelly
    How Would You Fix Healthcare? – Question and Answers.
    January 16, 2013
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Paul O’Neill on Protecting Our Healthcare Workforce: #NPSFLLI7
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Policy & Law > Public Health > Paul O’Neill on Protecting Our Healthcare Workforce: #NPSFLLI7
BusinessPolicy & LawPublic Health

Paul O’Neill on Protecting Our Healthcare Workforce: #NPSFLLI7

Tracy Granzyk
Tracy Granzyk
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

LLI Screen ShotBreakout sessions at last week’s Lucian Leape Forum included Dr. Lucian Leape himself, Paul O’Neill, Former Chairman and CEO, Alcoa, 72nd Secretary of the US Treasury and more.

LLI Screen ShotBreakout sessions at last week’s Lucian Leape Forum included Dr. Lucian Leape himself, Paul O’Neill, Former Chairman and CEO, Alcoa, 72nd Secretary of the US Treasury and more. I had the long-awaited pleasure of hearing Paul O’Neill speak in person, during his breakout session entitled, Operationalizing, Disseminating and Implementing Joy & Meaning In Work and Workforce Safety, along with Julie Morath, RN, MS, President & CEO, Hospital Quality Institute of California. O’Neill’s unwavering standards and expectations in business, and for healthcare, have been an inspiration for many. Therefore, it came as no surprise that he seemed irritated with our progress to date, pulling no punches when asking the group how many of us in the room knew the real-time facts about injury to the people who do the work in our hospitals, and, did a system currently exist to provide that information with a 24-hour lapse? No one in the room raised a hand, and he shared that only 6/100 of a recent audience at which he spoke responded affirmatively to the same questions.

“We’re too far away from this type of excellence,” following with a story that while at Alcoa, the company’s screen saver included real-time safety data. When a particularly concerning near miss appeared on his screen one day, O’Neill picked up the phone and called the team in Russia where it had occurred, asking for more information about what had happened. The personal attention to this near miss resonated throughout the organization, furthering the culture and behaviors that make organizations stronger. It’s this type of response and awareness to healthcare professional harm, as well as patient harm, that will move us to where we need to be.

“Why can’t we do this (in healthcare)?” was O’Neill’s resounding and animated challenge, many in the room knowing full well why we have not. Healthcare culture, leadership that says one thing but fails to support the necessary changes at pivotal moments, inertia–all of these however, are choices made by leadership. Either you’re in or you’re out.

More Read

Healthcare at the GOP debate
How Twitter Can Bolster Your Healthcare Search Marketing Game
The Healthcare Conundrum: Doing What’s Wrong for Business by Doing What’s Right
Tips for Starting a Medical Lab Business
A Culture of Safety in Hospitals and the CEO’s Role

Much of O’Neill’s breakout session was based on the LLI white paper, Through the Eyes of the Workforce, a must read for anyone serious about improving the quality and safety of care. Key takeaways from this breakout, as well as the summary session that followed, include:

  • It will be very challenging to protect patients if we first can’t protect our own.
  • The physical and psychological safety of our healthcare workforce is pivotal to ever improving the quality and safety of care.
  • Real leadership is enabling not controlling.
  • A leader’s first responsibility is to his/her people.
  • Safety is not negotiable – it’s not a trade-off. You figure out how to pay for it. A pre-condition is that people who work ‘here’ will not get hurt.
  • Habitually excellent organizations don’t “report” – they share information and act in a timely way when things go wrong.
  • The response is key when people do share information. You can shut down a reporting culture in a heartbeat if you criticize someone for what/how/where they shared information.
  • How would your healthcare workforce answer O’Neill’s 3 Questions: 1) Am I treated with dignity and respect by everyone each day? 2) Do I have what I need so I can make a contribution that gives meaning to my life? 3) Am I recognized and thanked for what I do?

We were reminded that it is hard to make a business case for healthcare professional safety, but data also shows that unhappy, un-empathetic, uninspired or unrecognized healthcare professionals directly impact the safety of patients, which directly impacts the “business case” in immeasurable ways. Too often, many in healthcare have observed our colleagues defend or excuse sub-optimal results, or continue to look the other way when observing behaviors that clearly are not in the best interest of colleagues or patients. O’Neill’s unwillingness to compromise standards or expectations is not only inspiring, those values created a company in Alcoa with a safety record that set the bar for his industry, as well as other high-risk care industries. O’Neill left the group with many pearls, but following is one that particularly resonated along with advice from the world of storytelling:

“Organizations are either habitually excellent or they’re not – there’s no in between,” said O’Neill.

“Do or not do, there is no try,” fictional sage Yoda advises via the story world of Star Wars.

It is time for healthcare to do differently.

Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Health Care Buzz Today

July 6, 2011
steps to create a successful health coaching business
Business

Steps You Must Take to Create a Successful Health Coaching Business

April 5, 2022
Image
BusinessNews

Choosing Wisely and Delivering Value in Obstetrics & Gynecology

April 29, 2013

Complex Systems, Part II

November 9, 2011
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?