To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, ‘Consulting is the most unusual of the perversions’. 

Some say potato, some say po-tah-to; Dan Quayle, not often mistaken for one of Werner Von Braun’s rocket scientists, spells both versions with an ‘e’.

Customer/patient, patient/customer, impatient/customer—let’s just call him Ernest.  The importance of being Ernest.

The patient’s experience is not some abstract concept to be debated among the ‘six sigmaists’. Take today for example.  My father is lying on the floor with a heart rate of 147. He has had one heart attack.  At seven AM the ambulance takes him to the hospital, a hospital without a cath lab.  His enzyme markers are elevated, and they have to transfer him to a hospital that has the ability to treat him.  At 1 PM he starts to dress himself—he hasn’t seen a sole in five hours, he is leaving—like father like son.

It seems the hospital forgot to write a transfer order or to even check on him.

I hope they do not ask him to complete a patient satisfaction survey.

If you happen to read this he and I would both appreciate your prayers.