Is Variation the Enemy of Quality?

Is Variation the Enemy of Quality?

Early in my career I thought of it like this. If things differ then outcomes also must differ so if we standardise care then quality follows. Neat, easy and of course as luck would have it, this turns out to be right – and wrong. Some standardisation often helps...
My light just went out

My light just went out

[ See part 1 of I Have a Little Light. ] Last time we finished with a little light for an idea that begins with “V” and has something to do with managing cost… “Yes” “Does it go up”? “It can” “Do things get joined”? “They can” “The more you do the better it is”...
I have a little light

I have a little light

This is the name of a game I played as a child with my great aunts at Christmas. Someone would start the game by saying “I have a little light” and then would describe the object or place or idea in deliberately oblique terms that appeared to be meaningless using...
New moves for the game of clinical governance

New moves for the game of clinical governance

One more time. Does anyone else feel it’s ground hog day? In my last post I said that in regard to the marked variations in cost and quality we are at fault, we caused them, essentially it’s our collective fault. But who is “we”? Did “we” all make it so? Maybe we are...