Is there a marriage between productivity and quality?
What we have been reviewing is a workplace ethic of excellence, a management philosophy that has at its core a creative orientation that encourages diversity of vision that drives risk taking, participation, and collaborative employee endeavors within the context of shared rewards. To achieve this ethic of excellence in an industry battered by socio-eco-political and ethical hurricanes, we need to be genuflecting at the altar of opportunity and engaging in brainstorming, not only about the future, but also how we are going to get there. We need to abandon the reflex of engaging in crisis management. Health care management must assume the role of coach, mentor, and visionary, thus shedding the inane propensity to move along the comfortable road of bureaucracy, cynicism, redundancy, and control. Our future lies in a proactive, organizationally integrated, customer-oriented, and enabling environment that delivers high quality standards that maximize productivity. Therefore, in a world of change, there must be a marriage between quality improvement and productivity through implementation of QIPP processes and culture.