Jim Easton inspires

#qualitysummit Jim Easton, national director for improvement and efficiency of the National Health Service, was the keynote speaker last night at the Saskatchewan Health Care Quality Summit.  (You see him here with Bonnie Brossart, CEO of the Health Quality Council.)  His was one of the most engaging and inspirational speeches I have ever heard on the topic.  I think it might be available on line in the future, but I wanted to present a summary here.

I think I'll do it, though, by just reposting my Twitter comments as the speech was delivered.  (You can also see them by searching using the hashtag above.)  While not doing full justice to Jim's eloquence, you'll get the drift.

Jim Easton tells Sask that they are doing great work - truly remarkable. But that's just the beginning. It's hard work!

It is tough to change attitudes and practice. Despite the commitment of people, a paradox.

Universal system really matters to UK and Sask. We need to remind people that we are protecting that. A leadership responsibility.

Improvement of health delivery system is the most important task in society. 

Cost reduction. Quality revolution. Patient empowerment. Three aspects of paradigm shift.

We the people running health care are killing it (costs) so we have responsibility 2 change it.

We have a responsibility to fix the unsustainability of the health care system

Easton aiming to save 20 billion pounds by 2014 for NHS! 

The cost problem is an ethical issue. Money is medicine.

Quality revolution. Examples of success exist but health care is still not a self-improving industry.

Shameful not to share clinical quality information.

Quality improvement driven by front-line is powerful. But we need to improve the improvement, to make it better.

We have ethical obligation to share information about how well health care system is performing.

We need to spread and increase the rate of improvement. Rate of both is 2 slow.

We love to hear from patients when they praise us! Easton. But we need to hear criticism better.

Criticism can be attributed to "difficult people." We are still early in this journey of listening.

How 2 accelerate change? Need to use all levers in a coordinated fashion. Leadership for change is one. Need skills.

Leadership is not an amateur sport! Need disciplined development.

Two: you need a plan for spreading innovation.

Three: have an improvement method like Lean. Common language. Skills will spread.

Four: engagement to mobilize. Communication. Have to tell the story of change right.

Tell the story over and over. 100 percent of ur time. Relentless communication.

Five: use system drivers and align with the desired changes. Money, salaries, investment. People spot those things.

Six: transparent measurement. Morally right. Powerful tool for change.

Seven: rigorous delivery. E.g. Waiting time. Link this to quality improvement.

Need to improve ourselves as leaders. Be intolerant of mediocrity, to hate it. Reject normative levels of harm.

It is not ok to be in the middle of the distribution of the number of people we are killing.

It is uncomfortable to be the person saying we are not doing well enough.

Easton says he's been called bully for saying good enough isn't good enough when it comes to quality, safety.

Be a personal champion of spread.

Harness the good difficult people. Deal with the bad difficult people. Don't allow blockers to block. Tackle this.

Staff always responds well in a crisis. Need to give value to calm ordered care.

Runs of routine success are what matters.

Reward ordered routine care.

Improving ourselves as leaders: This is hard. Get support.