RE: control charts in health care

["Mike Woolbert" <newsletter@tpmanswers.com>]

I have read many comments about the 8 minute ambulance trip.  This doesn’t
seem to be a system measure, but a result measure.  As some contributors
have said, there are other ways to look at the problem.  It seems a systems
approach would start with a “purpose”.  An eight minute ride to the hospital
limits success to shortening a non-health care event.  If the purpose were
to improve the number of successful emergency health care interactions, the
focus of the systems question would change.  More care might be moved to the
ambulance.  Care would override speed.  Dispatchers would be more able to
take information from the initial caller, then pass that information to the
ambulance team.  The ambulance might have more skilled personnel on board
and more sophisticated remote telemetry systems.  What about helicopters? 
What about using mass transit in peak traffic times.  The system isn’t about
an eight minute ambulance trip.  It is about creating a healthy outcomes.  
 
Mike Woolbert
 
mawoolb@charter.net