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
    medicare part d benefits
    Everything that You Need to Know About Medicare Part D
    August 15, 2022
    Best Ways to Boost Your Immune System this Winter
    Best Ways to Boost Your Immune System this Winter
    November 15, 2022
    back pain issues
    Ways to Treat Constant Back Pain
    August 21, 2023
    Latest News
    How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
    July 17, 2025
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
    The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Magnesium Supplements
    June 11, 2025
    The Best Home Remedies for Migraines
    June 5, 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
    More On Wellness Programs To Improve Health and Reduce Costs
    January 25, 2012
    Privatizing Social Security and Medicare: Who Can Defuse Political Dynamite?
    June 12, 2011
    Study: Risk of Death in Elderly Patients with Dementia Doubled with Some Antipsychotic Medications
    February 26, 2012
    Latest News
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
    How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
    July 17, 2025
    How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
    July 17, 2025
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 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

Treating Tumors, Not Patients
Minute Clinics Threaten Doctors: Who Wins?
Making Priority-Setting a Priority for Global Health
SCOTUS to Hear Case Involving Governor’s Proposal to Cut Payments for Providers to California’s Medicaid Patients
The Sleepy American

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

Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
Global Healthcare Policy & Law
July 17, 2025
paramedics in surgical gloves and masks
How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
Health care
July 16, 2025
a woman giving a key
How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
Health
July 16, 2025
a woman with kinesio tapes on her back arm
How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
Health care
July 16, 2025

You Might also Like

Cheap Generic Drugs from Emerging Markets Risky

July 7, 2011

Discretion is the Better Part of Health Care

August 4, 2011
James Merlino profile photo
BusinessHospital Administration

Leadership First, and Other Critical Lessons to Improve Patient Experience

May 9, 2014

Some Healthcare News and Views

December 19, 2014
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?