A Closer Look at Cardiac Care

Heather Fosburgh and Dayna Keene, YSPH Professor

Heather Fosburgh, GHLI Program Manager

It’s still hard to believe that in the course of seven weeks, the GHLI Leadership Saves Lives team has travelled to ten hospitals in ten different states to conduct more than 150 interviews to learn more about the cardiac care process in each of the hospitals.

I had the opportunity to participate in interviews and observations at three hospitals in Arizona, Illinois and Florida. Each hospital, like its geographic location, was unique … as were the people. However, interwoven in these differences, were common threads of excitement and eagerness to find new ways to improve patient care. Whether it was a nurse, a physician or an information technology specialist, hospital staff and faculty were truly interested in how they could help make a difference. It was inspiring to see their passion and motivation. 

Conducting these interviews for the LSL program provided me a brief but up-close glimpse into how things are behind the scenes of hospital patient care and management. We spoke with more than a dozen staff members at each hospital who shared, stories, experiences, and honest feelings with us.   

We have six months before the next round of hospital site visits start and during that time, we will be busy reading and analyzing the information collected to date. I find it fascinating to know that taking these individual experiences and combining them all together will contribute to a body of research that strives to understand what aspects of organizational culture can help improve mortality rates for patients with heart attacks.

Although it was less than two months work for me, I remain impressed by how much coordination it takes to effectively care for a patient who suffers from a heart attack coupled with the dedication of the people who provide this care.