The Changing NHS

Welcome to my 3rd Words of Wisdom post -  where I share favourite posts I've seen over the last couple of months or so. The first two WoW posts are here and here. 

I hope this selection provides some ‘food for thought’. In no particular order:

Mark Wilkinson is Chief Executive of Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust (PCT). That's Preston and nearby to you and me. Mark is a new blogger! It’s good to see NHS CEOs reaching out to people / their members in such an open way. Maybe Mark will start a trend? His blog is called Mark's Blog and Banter

PauLevy is CEO of Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center in Boston Massachusetts. A recent post that caught my eye is this one – Teamwork Wins Against VAP (ventilator associated pneumonia). Teamwork saves 96 Lives might be a better title;

Charging money for things (even at a very low rate) really does change, quite dramatically, how people perceive services and products. Seth Godin relates how IKEA started charging 10 pence for shopping bags and consumption reduced by 95%. Maybe there is a useful future for co-pays in the NHS?

ScribeMedia have put together a fantastic short video chronicling A Brief History of Medicinefrom witches and leeches to Web 2.0. health communities. Produced to show at the recent Health 2.0 - User Generated Conference in San Francisco. Treat youself and watch four minutes and 30 seconds of brilliant stuff - and no I didn't go to San Fran either!

Susan Abbott at Customer Experience Crossroads gave me a ‘aha moment’ with her post about Curves , a new fitness centre franchise, designed and run for people who hate traditional gyms and fitness centres. Now maybe this is the sort of experience that GPs ought to be 'prescribing' for people who need to lose weight? Does this kind of fitness centre experience already exist in the UK?

RateMDs , DrScore and VIMO are all sites where Americans can rate their doctors. Now how long does it take for this stuff to travel over the pond! Thanks to David E Williams at The Health Business Blog for posting about this first time around;

David Maister has a great idea. If you want to be a more agile organisation then break out of the annual cycle and review plans on a 3 monthly basis. Read it here.