WIHI: Essential Skills for Health Care Reformers and Improvers: Holding Tension and Learning Habits of the Heart

Date: June 20, 2012

Featuring:

• Parker J. Palmer, Founder and Senior Partner, Center for Courage and Renewal; Author, Healing the Heart of Democracy
• Jeffrey D. Selberg, MHA, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

The health care improvement community has often benefited from the work and perspective of other industries. Taking a systems approach to improving quality and safety in health care owes much to the concepts and work that turned the tide on risks and defects and waste in aviation and manufacturing.

The quality improvement movement has also benefited from the wisdom of “outsiders” — individuals asked to look in at what health care improvement is trying to achieve and to tell us what we may be missing or what they see that we don't, because we’re just too close to the problems and the day-to-day solutions. Parker Palmer is just such a person, and he’s visited with the improvement community before; in 1997 he delivered a moving keynote at IHI’s National Forum about the challenges of being a dedicated health care professional.

On the eve of the Supreme Court issuing its decision on the Affordable Care Act, and with new policies and payment schemes and community-focus reshaping the very core of what it means to be an effective health care leader, WIHI thought this would be a perfect moment to invite Parker Palmer to speak with us again. IHI Executive Vice President and COO, Jeff Selberg, who knows Dr. Palmer’s ideas and writings well, helps lead the discussion, along with WIHI host, Madge Kaplan.

When one is committed to change, there are good days and bad, and successes can easily be followed by disappointments and setbacks. The challenge becomes how to hold the entire picture in a sort of “creative tension,” to avoid retreating from the public square, and to retain one’s openness and curiosity when things don’t go as hoped or planned. Parker Palmer is very aware of the tremendous pressures and challenges all health care leaders and professionals now face to forge a new kind of contract with payers and patients alike. It’s an exciting time, and a difficult one.