Crozier said the emphasis on efficiency has left some staff weary. For a while the focus shifted to business, with everything going on, and employees felt they became a commodity or an expense. Some experts say the widespread malaise is typical of what occurs at the end of an era or a major cultural shift. In health care, we ve come late to the information age and to the focus on value. The basic work has changed.
Nurses are excellent at taking care of the sick.
The problem is, that s not the agenda anymore. Instead, he says, the focus is on whittling down the time patients spend in hospitals. Nurses and others will feel more at home in the new value-focused culture of health care if they learn to make decisions in a new context, O Grady said. Decisions for patients have to be based not on what kinds of treatments or technologies are available, but rather on what will provide long-term, measurable results, O Grady said. It takes wisdom and courage.