Humanizing Healthcare

From a top healthcare futurist, frontline innovator, and Deloitte consultant comes a bold new vision for Humanizing Healthcare—hardwiring humanity at every point of care—that is good for people and good for business. Our nation’s healthcare and life science industry has changed dramatically over the past few decades—and not always for the better. In addition to rising costs and access challenges, the current system has caused needless suffering for patients and clinicians alike: physically, emotionally, financially, and socially. There have been numerous efforts to overhaul the system, but nothing has yet cured healthcare of its illnesses. In Humanizing Healthcare, paramedic-turned-physician executive and Deloitte Managing Director Summer Knight draws on her years of experience on the frontlines of healthcare to offer a powerful road map for real reform. Her refreshingly human approach to transforming our healthcare system provides practical strategies to: Identify core problems in the current system—and find the best workable solutions. Combine healthcare with social services—and build stronger networks of support. Use digital technology and virtual visits to provide expert care at lower costs. Empower healthcare consumers to make smarter choices in their treatment and purchasing options. Form therapeutic alliances between the clinical team (physicians and staff) and the home team (family and friends). Build a solid foundation for ongoing improvements that are truly sustainable, affordable, and humane. This is a clear, compassionate guide to how the industry can transform to embody a more human perspective and use it as a collective north star that will positively impact all stakeholders—consumers, providers, caregivers, staff, executives, shareholders, and the government—alike. Most importantly, this book will open your eyes to what’s possible when you create high-quality, deeply felt alliances that deliver consumer-driven care with value to all. Humanizing Healthcare is the future of health.

Health care regulatory agencies demand that patients receive efficient, competent, compassionate care; however, because of caregivers' own unhealed issues along with other factors, care often falls short of those goals. Melanie Sears, RN, MBA, PhD, leverages more than thirty years of nursing experience to look at what really prevents patients from getting the care they need and health care workers from getting the support needed to thrive in the stressful environment of health care. From domination-style management, fear and judgment-based practitioner relationships, and a poignant separation between physical, mental, and emotional care, the costs of these factors are enormous. Sears argues that the most effective way to evolve this problematic culture is to shift the language used by those providing care.

This book introduces human factors engineering (HFE) principles, guidelines, and design methods for medical device design. It starts with an overview of physical, perceptual, and cognitive abilities and limitations, and their implications for design. This analysis produces a set of human factors principles that can be applied across many design challenges, which are then applied to guidelines for designing input controls, visual displays, auditory displays (alerts, alarms, warnings), and human-computer interaction. Specific challenges and solutions for various medical device domains, such as robotic surgery, laparoscopic surgery, artificial organs, wearables, continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, and reprocessing, are discussed. Human factors research and design methods are provided and integrated into a human factors design lifecycle, and a discussion of regulatory requirements and procedures is provided, including guidance on what human factors activities should be conducted when and how they should be documented. This hands-on professional reference is an essential introduction and resource for students and practitioners in HFE, biomedical engineering, industrial design, graphic design, user-experience design, quality engineering, product management, and regulatory affairs. Teaches readers to design medical devices that are safer, more effective, and less error prone; Explains the role and responsibilities of regulatory agencies in medical device design; Introduces analysis and research methods such as UFMEA, task analysis, heuristic evaluation, and usability testing.

A practical strategy for transforming the UK and other healthcare systems... offering an affordable, sustainable and compassionate alternative to the present mess.

Looking at the current turmoil facing contemporary healthcare systems worldwide, resulting from relentless imposition of financially-based performance indicators, the author argues that a return to a values-based approach to healthcare will create positive transformation. Writing from the fresh perspective of social anthropology, the author takes a highly pragmatic approach to practice, emphasizing the importance of values such as compassion, solidarity and social justice. He suggests that without being able clearly to identify the values and goals that unite their members, healthcare organizations are unlikely to be able to meet the demands of the constant and varied pressures they face, and explains how individuals at every level in healthcare can contribute in practical ways to positive change within their organizations. This much-needed and very accessible book will be essential reading for anyone interested in a better approach to healthcare reform, from clinicians and nurses, to managers and policy makers, as well as the interested reader.

This book contains subjects by authors with a fresh, exciting and extensive focus within the medical humanities, offering the reader chapters which include the history of medical illustration, Graphic Medicine as a vehicle for the expression of humanistic dimensions of healthcare, equitable and ethical medical illustrations, as well as novel, art-based approaches in anatomical education. Authors consider the role of visual narratives in medical and scientific illustration, the unique affordances of the comics medium, the history of comics as a form of medical and scientific visualization, and the role of comics as didactic tools and as vehicles for the expression of the humanistic dimensions of healthcare. A chapter considers ethical and equitable implications in global healthcare practice, and highlights the work currently being undertaken to address inappropriate and problematic depictions of people in global health visualizations. This will inform the reader of emerging and current thinking about visual communication and the use of images in the public domain, as well as in the healthcare and education sectors. Novel approaches in anatomical education include the benefits of three-dimensional anatomy models made of felt, visual analogies as a method to enhance students’ learning of histology, the use of the hands for learning anatomy, and visualizing anatomy through art, archaeology and medicine. This book will appeal to readers who have an interest in the medical humanities, Graphic Medicine, and ethical medical and anatomical illustrations. These include academic and non-academic readers, medical students, medical educators, clinicians, health-care workers, as well as policy makers.

Humanising Mental Health Care in Australia is a unique and innovative contribution to the healthcare literature that outlines the trauma-informed approaches necessary to provide a more compassionate model of care for those who suffer with mental illness. The impact of abuse and trauma is frequently overlooked in this population, to the detriment of both individual and society. This work highlights the importance of recognising such a history and responding humanely. The book explores the trauma-informed perspective across four sections. The first outlines theory, constructs and effects of abuse and trauma. The second section addresses the effects of abuse and trauma on specific populations. The third section outlines a diverse range of individual treatment approaches. The final section takes a broader perspective, examining the importance of culture and training as well as the organisation and delivery of services. Written in an accessible style by a diverse group of national and international experts, Humanising Mental Health Care in Australia is an invaluable resource for mental health clinicians, the community managed and primary health sectors, policy makers and researchers, and will be a helpful reference for people who have experienced trauma and those who care for them.

This book offers an overview of service design practices for healthcare and hospital management. It explores how these practices can help to generate innovations in healthcare and contribute to the improvement of patient-centered care. Respected experts, including scholars from various disciplines and practitioners from healthcare institutions, share essential insights into established research areas, fields of work and work structures, and discuss successful approaches, methods and tools. By illustrating innovative services, products, processes, systems, and technologies, as well as their application in practice, the authors highlight the role of participating stakeholders in service design projects and the added value that comes from sharing, communicating, networking and collaborating. This book is a must-read for scholars and practitioners in the hospital and healthcare sector. It will also appeal to anyone interested in organizational development, service business model innovation, customer involvement and perceptions, and service experience.