Legal Commentary

Tom Peters on US Health System: What Would He Say About The Law Business?

By Patrick J. Lamb

I am a huge fan of Tom Peters.  Not a mindless disciple, mind you, but he is provocative in the best way.  He makes me think.

Tom's recent rant about the healthcare system is worth reading, but in your mind, substitute the word "legal" for "healthcare."  Pretty ugly, isn't it?

As with customer-care and people practices, we have the wherewithal within to make Giant Performance Leaps. So when will we do so with the Total Determination the issue demands?

Tom Peters/The U.S. Healthcare14

U.S. Life expectancy rank: #45.
WHO, overall American healthcare system performance: #37 (#1 in cost).

Access: Denied to 10s of millions un/underinsured.
Unnecessary annual health-system deaths: 200,000-400,000 or more.*
Performance/top med centers: Problematic re quality of care and follow-up.*
Over-treatment (meds, tests, procedures): Pandemic.*
Use of hard evidence in medical decision-making: Spotty at best.*
Collection of evidence based on reported treatment errors: Low.*
Use of S.O.P.s in treatment regimes: Spotty.*
Incentives for appropriate care: Low.*
Incentives for inappropriate care: High.*
Emphasis on prevention and wellness: Low.*
Emphasis on chronic-care: Low.*
State-of-the-art IS/IT: Rare.*

*Fixable without legislation or major societal change—e.g., can by and large be improved dramatically without some form of mandated universal access to care and in the absence of, say, a full-fledged War on Obesity. (Evidence in support of this proposition is the fact that in every category starred above there are Pockets of Excellence—hospitals and other health-service organizations, facing the same realities as their peers, that really "get it.")

I'd hate to see what he would have to say if he really focused on the law business!

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on July 31, 2008 (boomark / email).