Visit

Met K - a young consultant of another specialty in a peripheral hospital - in an informal incident. I did not see him for quite some time.

"Hi ! How're you getting on ?" I asked lightheartedly.

"Just back from an overseas visit. You know, our boss is very keen on quality improvement and introduction of successful experience from overseas centres. This time, we - a handful of newly promoted consultants - have the chance and visit several hospitals and private clinics in that friendly city ..." My friend appeared enthusiastic.

"Well, was that useful ?"

"Quite a bit, quite a bit." He sounded more apologetic than proud, "For example, we learn some useful ways to streamline drug dispensing after a clinic visit, and how to shorten the queue waiting outside the consultation room."

"That sounds great." I tried to be encouraging, "Are you people going to put them in use ?"

"Oh, not yet ..." my friend sighed, "We are not in the position of making any administrative decision. All we could do is to report to our headquarters people and arrange further meetings to present our proposal - if there is any ..."

(You may ask why don't those administrating specialists do the overseas visit themselves. They do - for example, to some Japanese motor corporations. The problem is: The first clinic that they should pay a visit and learn is our own ones.)

PS. As to shortening the queue, DC - another friend of mine who works in yet another specialty - told me that the way they learned was to stop people from waiting outside the consultation room; patients were asked to stay outside the building and wait there.

The only difference is: The administrators agreed to adopt that policy !