Standardised Management Conversation

The Book

I have written a mini-ebook called Standardised ManagementConversation (SMC) which I think is essential for healthcare directors, managers and senior clinicians. The SMC is a model which is to be used when various healthcare managers talk to those who report to them. It will also be useful for non-healthcare professionals and managers as the fundamental principles are more or less the same.

Since the conversation is standardised in the model, it makes conversation between people predictable and stable with no surprises. The model is based on sound principles, years of observations and practical experience. It draws on conventional management, clinical ‘lean’ management and some lateral thinking.

It is a small booklet. It is priced at £0.99 for UK and $0.99 for USA (equivalent prices for other countries) published in the ebook format via Amazon available at this link http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018AWBJTU

The Cause

I will be donating all the money that I get from the first year (November 2015 to December 2016) sales of this mini-ebook to a charity called Udavum Karangal in India ( http://www.udavumkarangal.org/  ) for the purpose of sponsoring an orphan child all the way through childhood till the child finishes education and leaves the orphanage. This scheme costs about $1000 or £600 which is actually a great value for money to see a child through childhood and education, thus providing a solid foundation for a stable adult life. I like long term thinking and long term benefits, that is why I have chosen this charity. I have personal experience of sponsoring children through this scheme. I have no other relationship with this charity, they do not know that I am doing this.

So here we go, if you are a director or manager in any field or have aspirations to become one in the future, especially if you are in healthcare, if you are a clinician with an interest in management, buy the mini-ebook SMC - Standardised Management Conversation. If you like it and use it and you are successful it is a win for you as a reader of SMC booklet, it is a success for me as an author and it is a success for a child till he/she becomes an adult. Well, if you do not like it, your £0.99 is pure charity.

It is a win-win-win whichever way you look at it. You may perhaps now want to make a guess on the gist of the content of the SMC mini-ebook.

Thank you for your support.

©M HEMADRI

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PS: As a new author, new to e-publishing, if there are issues with it kindly provide me feedback so that I can improve on it.

Toyota for you doc

Toyota for you doc, what will it be for your patients?

In a recent Medscape survey it was found that doctors’ choice of cars were as follows: Toyota (16.73%), Honda (14.8%), Lexus (8.3%), BMW (7.5%), and Mercedes-Benz (5.32%). Ford came in a very close sixth at 5.24%, and Chevrolet came in eighth at 4.13%.

It is apparent that 25% of doctors chose Toyota directly (since Lexus is manufactured by Toyota) and 31.53% come from the the lean methodology (since Honda also follows similar methods) constituting the top two car choices of American doctors. If other Japanese manufacturers were included it would be much more. It is a 2012 survey that means the doctors were probably aware of Toyota’s problems from 2010.

Why would doctor’s chose cars manufactured with lean methodology despite Toyota's recent problems? It is possible that the doctors feel those cars are still highly reliable despite the odd headline problems. The doctors are perhaps really impressed with the degree of honesty with which Toyota has recalled to rectify problems and the degree of humility shown in offering a public world wide apology. It may be the case that Toyota, Honda and those who share their lean philosophy still offer great value for money – doctors also do look for value for money.

What is fascinating is that the majority of doctors, the same doctors who like Toyota lean methodology despite its problems, do not follow the healthcare adaptations of lean methodology despite undeniably proven examples within America. Virginia Mason is a small scale system and Intermountain is a large scale system that has excellent versions of clinical lean (there are others too). There is huge resistance to even begin to look at the methodology.

Human beings and healthcare, are not cars and car manufacturing, so I do understand if we did not want industry people directly applying their methods to healthcare. Clinical lean and healthcare delivery lean is specific and different (as practised at a few places in the world), the translation and adaptation has already been done and fine tuned for nearly a quarter of a century. Clinicians need to show the relevant leadership to make it work in their patch where ever they are in the world.

It is not too much to ask is it, to deliver value to your patient; the same or more value that you expect from your car? I know patients are not cars and healthcare is godzillion times more complex that the automotive industry. That is why I talk about value creation and the application of healthcare specific lean (not other industry lean) from proven systems. Clinicians only have to learn and apply clinical lean in healthcare – if you can learn and practice medicine with all its complexity, applying clinical lean where possible, with its eventual elegant simplicity is a piece of cake. Or is it?

©M HEMADRI

Taste the sampler menu of clinical lean by attending the Clinical Quality Improvement Course

Find some of the high level the outlining principles HERE

Arterial Blood Gas turnaround times

Clinical Lean

Blood gas analysis revolutionised ICU, respiratory and sepsis management. The thing about ABG (arterial blood gas) result is that unless we act upon it quickly, it becomes a total waste of time.

The current turnaround time for blood gas analysis is thought to be 10 minutes; when a point of care testing hand held blood gas analyser is used the turn around time can be reduced to 30 seconds.

The so called total cycle time for blood gas analysis can be reduced from 20 minutes to about 3 minutes when a hand held analyser can be used.

A colleague and friend of mine asked if I would rather have an accurate ABG result in 10 minutes or an inaccurate result in 30 seconds.He went on to state that the hand held blood sugar machines are not used to make a diagnosis of diabetis because they are inaccurate. This line of argument is of course very important. If an inaccurate result is going to harm the patient, a faster inaccurate result will harm the patient very quickly - not good. On the question of POCT (point of care testing) blood sugar, it is very common to use such machines to recognise and treat hypos and hypers though I accept that they are not used for a primary diagnosis of DM. Could the POCT ABG machines used to commence a line of action which could be validated later by a 'proper' machine?

Of course there are pros and cons to this and consequently safety, quality and training issues. The point though is to overcome the reasons why POCT blood gas analysers cannot be used and enable their use safely. After all we moved blood sugar to point of care and now even to patient's homes - at that time arguments about similar issues would have raged. There is no reason why Blood Gas Analysis should not be done at the point of care on a routine basis.It fits in with the broader need to breakdown monuments.

It is a simple and great example of clinical lean in healthcare.

Hemadri's Four Fundamental Questions for Clinical Quality Improvement

Hemadri's 4 fundamental questions for Clinical Quality Improvement

1) Do you have local clinicians' agreement on clinical healthcare delivery? (Doing the same thing by all professionals in the same manner for the same condition)

2) Are you measuring the right things in the right manner? (Measuring process and outcomes over time)

3) Do you have a human approach to leadership and management? (In other words do your staff love you, do your patients love you? Working with and enjoying ambiguity and limitations)

4) Can you prove meaningfully that you have shared to others and you have learned from others within your organisation? (Proof that every individual does whole system improvement)


To some of you these four questions might sound like cliches. To some of you these might be stating the blindingly obvious. The questions are not 'lay'; they are highly technical questions with strong theories and some practical examples behind them. There are specific and explicit frameworks, methods and techniques to explore these questions and then to make them happen.

There is a general impression that healthcare does all the four well; especially if you work in healthcare you may be tempted to answer 'Yes' to all the four questions. You may even proceed to argue and 'prove' it. There is much evidence that healthcare in general lacks all the above four. The chances are it will be surprising if many areas of healthcare delivery had even one of these. But once these questions can be answered with a real 'Yes' healthcare leaps into a bright better zone.

Success in Healthcare can be found only if the the answers to all the four questions can be a clearly demonstrated 'YES'.

We explore these at the CQI to some extent. I am hoping that over a period of time I should be able to blog about these things in specific detail rather than in broad general terms. Perhaps even write a book.

© HEMADRI

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