Time is our Currency

I am traveling today on an airline. It will come as no surprise to you that I am writing this while sitting in the gate area - waiting to board.

With a little time on my hands, my thoughts drifted to the hundreds of times this exact scene has repeated itself in my life. I wonder how many minutes of what could have been productive time has been wasted, waiting to board, waiting to taxi, waiting to take off, waiting for a gate upon arrival, waiting for baggage.

It occurs to me that in addition to the financial cost of the ticket, the cost of our time should also be calculated in determining the true cost of airline travel.

Time is also the currency when calculating the "cost" of our experience with the healthcare system. To be honest, when I am not feeling well, I often factor in the time I expect to have to wait to be seen in the decision to go see my primary care physician. Delays of up two hours past my appointment time are not uncommon. The result? I have to be pretty darn sick to go see him - so sick in fact that the time lost waiting almost doesn't matter anymore. (Which is the same with airline travel - I have to be there so the time waiting almost doesn't matter any more.)

When really sick, I sometimes even resort to going to the local Minor Medical facility. I have discovered I can often be seen more quickly there without an appointment than I can at my primary care physician's office with an appointment. So for those with insurance, and thus reimbursed medical costs, the currency we use to "pay" for our healthcare is our time.

Which is one of the reasons I enjoy my work with healthcare so much. In showing healthcare organizations how they can make their processes more safe, we also show them how making processes safer makes them more efficient. One of the really nice by-products of a process that has been rengineered to make it safer is that it often turns out having fewer steps, fewer handoffs, more clarity on who does what, and is therefore, more efficient.

It brings a lot of satisfaction to see a client's face light up when they analyze their data a few months into the project and realize they "bought" safety and got efficiency in the bargain.

And when the data begins to roll in showing decreased OR turnaround times, increased on-time procedure starts, and fewer unexpected delays, the organization has a very useful tool for its effort to convince physicians to become true partners in the organization's effort to increase safety and quality. In effect, the "deal" becomes, "You help us get to where we want to be in terms of safety and quality and the benefit to you will be greater efficiency, fewer delays, and less friction with our systems." This is a deal where everyone wins - the adminstration, the physicians and staff, and most importantly, the patient.

Oops, they're boarding now - gotta go. My last thought is this - Time is the currency of passengers, patients, and physicians. Whoever can give more of it to any of the three will succeed.