What Does Transparency in Healthcare Mean to You?

Yesterday’s afternoon discussion at Telluride East was focused on “Transparency”, a buzzword for many in healthcare today, but a concept that holds tremendous meaning for patient safety and caregiver well-being for those who walk the talk. Dave Mayer started the conversation by asking the group to share what transparency meant to them, and then breaking up the larger group to discuss:

Yesterday’s afternoon discussion at Telluride East was focused on “Transparency”, a buzzword for many in healthcare today, but a concept that holds tremendous meaning for patient safety and caregiver well-being for those who walk the talk. Dave Mayer started the conversation by asking the group to share what transparency meant to them, and then breaking up the larger group to discuss:

1. What are the barriers to transparency in healthcare?
2. What are the barriers to being transparent with patients?
3. What are the benefits to having a transparent culture in place?

In our small group, several themes emerged, and surprisingly, not the least of which revolved around leadership and culture being the primary drivers of the “shades of transparency” experienced by both providers and patients in any given health system. One of our student scholars shared how he feels his excellent intuition, or spidey senses, need to be kept in check so as not to appear a “pain in the butt” to senior physicians–physicians who set grades and can directly impact his medical career. Those same spidey senses activated in the mindful physician during the delivery of care, or as he coined it, hypervigilence, are exactly what is being called for in healthcare organizations seeking to become high reliability systems. Here was someone who clearly was acting in the best interest of a patient, and because of hierarchy and poor leadership, was made to feel as though his intuition was a bad thing.

In a related and revealing post, I’m sick and tired…but far from done, Telluride faculty and colleague, Richard Corder, shares his ire related to watching the bad eggs of healthcare remain in place, to continue to harass and cripple the well-meaning efforts at culture change. While he comes from a position of understanding “the why” of the situation, he’s also sick and tired, as are many well-intentioned caregivers who have chosen to remain silent in the face of leadership that fails to lead–and worse yet–infuses toxicity into a culture and careers of those less tenured. When I hear stories like these I know we still have a long way to go to create a healthcare that is safe for all who work within it, or enter it as a patient.

The silver lining to all this is the medical and nursing students who have chosen to come to Telluride this year. The same medical student mentioned above also stated, “when I’m an attending, I will encourage questions about the care being delivered.” And I believe him, but I also know the real world sometimes takes that passion, that resolve, and turns it into “shades of the self” that if not careful, can turn even the most well-meaning individual into someone who has to rationalize or tone down the goodness within. It’s our job as healthcare leaders to support those young learners in any possible way we can. This is a recurring theme that comes to light at the Telluride Patient Safety Summer Camps…

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