The Collective New Year’s Resolution
As we head into 2012, the Human Capital Blog asked Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) staff, program directors, scholars and grantees to share their New Year’s resolutions for our health care system, and what they think should be the priorities for action in the New Year. This post is by Heather J. Kelley-Thompson, MA, Program Associate, RWJF’s Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
As the program associate for the Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) program, I have the opportunity to learn about groundbreaking research happening across a variety of health care settings, focused on a large spectrum of issues. INQRI grantees are contributing much to the discussion about how to increase quality while managing cost concerns.
Perhaps I should tell you that our main goal in 2012 should be reducing hospital readmissions. But, then I remember how vitally important it is to prevent the incredibly painful (and avoidable) pressure ulcers that complicate care for patients in hospitals everywhere. However, pressure ulcers are not the only issues that need to be avoided when delivering care. We need to work to reduce falls and properly deliver medication.
Then, I think about the conversation I had with my mother only yesterday. She told me about waiting with her best friend in the emergency room for three-and-a-half-hours while her friend wept over a broken arm which no one had time to set. The ER was filled with desperately sick people ahead of her who probably should have seen a primary care provider weeks prior, but didn’t because they had no insurance.
The bottom line here is that there is no bottom line. I can’t think of only one area in which we should concentrate our efforts in 2012. Instead I’ll suggest that our collective New Year’s resolution be that all Americans accept that the many problems facing our health care system belong to all of us. Let it be resolved that we all take some kind of action to address them.
