Remember the Patient-The Moral Test

Dr. Don Berwick’s acceptance speech after winning the “Picker Award of Excellence” at the 23rd IHI forum on Dec. 7, 2011. (click on photo for entire speech) 

I listened intently to his words as the entire audience did. We all know what Don has accomplished and we all had his back on his expedition never doubting his potential for implementing the right patient and family centered change. Yes, we are his followers. 

“…The good news: the possibility of change has never been greater – not in my lifetime. The bad news: if it’s going to be the right change, the burden is yours…”

You could feel the taking in of that statement as quickly as it left his lips. The accepting of responsibility by the healthcare clinical and non clinical audience that it’s up to us. We must lead. Now that we’re home, how are we going to collaboratively take over the fight for the common good in healthcare? We were given an assignment that will impact the world and our childrens’ and grand childrens’ futures. It’s vital.

Don continues, “And that is where you come in. Here is the lesson I bring you from 16 months in Washington, DC. Your time has come. You are on the cusp of history – you, not Washington, are the bridge between the dream and the reality – or else there will be no bridge. Our quest – for health care that is just, safe, infinitely humane, and that takes only its fair share of our wealth – our quest may not be as magnificent as the quest for human rights or for a sustainable earth, but it is immensely worthy. You stand, though you did not choose it, at the crossroads of momentous change – at the threshold of majesty. And – frightened, fortunate, or both – you now have a chance to make what is possible real.”