I would call myself an amateur craftsman. Building things is one of my greatest passions. I turn on my music, measure twice, and cut once for hours on end. Seeing the product materialize is such satisfaction for me, almost therapeutic. It forces my mind to slow down and redirect from the constant Indy-car speed it normally runs at when thinking about healthcare process and operations improvement. I “specialize” in the rustic farmhouse look because in all honesty, imperfections are expected, and those imperfections will be there in my adventures as an amateur craftsman.

This past summer, I decided to cannonball into my largest home improvement project so far. I had graduated from building coffee and kitchen tables to remodeling an entire bathroom on my own. As my wife nervously looked on, I tore down walls, I removed vanities, and even removed subflooring to expose plumbing and such. Man, that demo was fun! Then came time for the picture in my brain to all come together. Piece by piece, screw by screw, I began constructing. I ran into countless issues that surely a professional would have known to expect. As such, my project took about twice as long as I had anticipated.

One of my other greatest passions is healthcare and it was only natural for my brain, in its therapeutic state, to begin comparing it to the plumbing that was now exposed. As I moved sinks, showers, and toilets to different corners of the small bathroom, I nervously looked at each PVC connection, begging for no water issues. Those in healthcare know that we consistently find exposed leaks and clogs when reviewing throughput, but how do we repair the piping that is patient flow? 

Have you ever heard of the old firefighting method called the bucket brigade? It was an early method of extinguishing fires prior to hand pumped fire engines. The firefighters would pass buckets of water to each other and pour it on the fire until it was extinguished. The most famous bucket brigade was the Union Fire Company. If you have time to get lost in its history, I recommend it.

This method of firefighting was not perfect and certainly was not efficient; however, given the resources available, it was the best at the time. We are passing buckets of water (patients) one-by-one, spilling a little with each pass, until we get to the destination where maybe 50% of the goal is achieved if we are lucky. Putting out fires like this versus utilizing a pressurized fire hose of course is significantly slower, more expensive due to the cost of labor, and in comparison, dangerous.

Here we are in 2022 Healthcare, utilizing century old methods of moving patients: one-by-one and pass-by-pass. What if we unclogged our current healthcare system by installing plumbing that minimizes leaks, allowing water to flow without the human capital requirement? What if water effortlessly ran smoothly, without spilling, and much quicker? Why wouldn’t we do that? Ooh, and add in some pressure behind this water in the forms of artificial intelligence, data, analytics, and predictions. Now we’re spraying water on the fire at 1500 gallons per minute. What a difference that would be and I invite you to join me in this innovative new experience for patient flow. I’m traveling the country learning and building on my throughput knowledge base to put together a clog free, easy flowing, leakless, highly pressurized healthcare system. It’s time to graduate to a licensed, bonded professional whose other greatest passion is getting in and doing the tough throughput work, instead of continuing to explore

adventures as an amateur craftsman.