Atul, YouTube and "Failure & Rescue" - BLISS!

 

Not simply another "must-read" New Yorker article by Dr. Atul Gawande - a YouTube video of him presenting his 2012 Williams College commencement speech at that fall's New Yorker Festival! 

Why the "must-read" designation?  As Atul points out, what is true for hospitals is true for all of us - failure seems less tied to how well we initially handle situations using knowledge acquired in schooling, training received on our jobs, and more on turn situations around when things go sour.  The medical term for this is "failure to rescue," a term coined by researchers at the University of Michigan.

The Michigan researchers discovered that hospitals with the best outcomes didn't do a better job at minimizing risks & keeping things from wrong, Their post-surgery complications rates were practically on par with other hospitals.  Where they stood out was in rescuing patients after a complication.  They're better at rescuing patients who took a turn for the worse.  

As Atul put it, "More than anything, this is what distinguished the great from the mediocre. They didn’t fail less. They rescued more."

Atul succinctly captures something I'd love to share with youngers striving with such love & devotion to help aging loved ones experience a life as full & rewarding as possible, with oldsters striving to stay engaged with all that is around them.  We can't avoid calamities, but we can stay focused on doing all we can to turn them around.  

As the Michigan study showed, success isn't in the ability to avoid risk & calamity, but in how we respond when risks kick in & a good outcome turns bad, in our ability to keep moving forward.