Taking Quality of Care and Quality of Life for Granted Can Be Lethal

A recent trip to the American College of Healthcare Administrators conference where person-centered care was conspicuously absent from the agenda and a recent study that revealed that hospital boards may not be paying as much attention to quality as they should has me worried. Because inherent in both is the assumption that quality of care and quality of life are good.

Sort of like Robert DeNiro’s latest movie Everybody’s Fine. His character Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at the last minute, Frank, against the advice of his doctor, sets out on a road trip to reconnect. As he visits each one in turn, Frank finds that his children’s lives are not quite as picture-perfect as they’ve made them out to be.

Things are not as picture perfect as we think in health care and boards need to be the overseers to reset the direction and make sure we are paying attention to quality of care (the clinical) and quality of life (the experience).