Avoid 'cookbook medicine' to put patients first

Guest post by Nancy Peed, CEO of The Medical Center of Peach County (Ga.)

I am a firm believer that healthcare workers want to do the right thing. They are personally concerned with doing what is best for the patient, and are motivated to achieve positive outcomes. That innate desire is the basis for implementing core measures.

Implementing best practices often fails, however, when we give physicians and clinicians a list of things to do but fail to explain the reasons why.

For the past decade, Peach Regional Medical Center, a 25-bed critical access hospital, has sought to break away from the idea of "cookbook medicine" by tailoring the messages we sent to our employees. We consciously transitioned from using language that discussed Joint Commission requirements, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requirements, and payer requirements. Instead, we began to develop the idea that core measures are the right thing to do for the patient. We took the time to show our clinicians the literature and the documentation that proves core measures are best practices.

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