The Mayo clinic has been recently awarded the "U.S. News Best Hospitals 2014-15" classification which inlcudes being the best or among the best in 15 of 16 categories. The point here being that Mayo has excelled in the practice of Patient Centered Medicine. And this has been also the result of being faithfull to their values, their teamwork as the mechanism to practice medicine, a clever use of technology to improve and support knowledge sharing, etc.
It seems to me that this is exactly the opposite to the practice of medicine by Dr. House. In fact. is quite a useful exercise on human values to compare those two poles of medical practice. The enlighted team versus the clever individualistic Doctor House.
What do you think?
I am a nurse and I have worked as a staff nurse and a Chief Nursing Officer. There is strong and substantial evidence that outcomes are much better when everyone works together. Here is an example. I worked as a clinical nurse specialist caring for patients with cardiac disease. There was a patient I will call Mary. Over several months she was admitted to the hospital with acute myocardial infarction, GI bleed, post MI syndrome, cardiac arrhythmia, fever of unknown reason, TIA, and then she was admitted with respiratory failure and was found to have failing kidneys. She was intubated, hypotensive and not responding to therapy. If we didn't figure something out. Her physician was a team player and I had worked with him many years. I asked him if there was anything that could explain ALL of her problems. He looked at me and said, "yes!" He had me draw some blood and then we gave her a gram of corticosteriods. Within four hours her blood pressure stablized and by morning she was ready come off the ventilator.
Her lab exams came back positive for Lupus and with treatment she remained stable for many years. I would often wonder, If I had not asked the question and if this physician had not listened to me and realized what was wrong and how to treat it, Mary would have been robbed of the years she had with her family. We must work together as a team to save lives. I believe that we do need brilliant physicians but we also need those who will listen to everyone, not see themselves as the 'only' answer.
Thanks a lot Susan. I suspect you will fire Dr. House.
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