Finally, the medical industry is putting aside its “We’re medicine; we’re different” mindset and taking a more practical look at quality improvement. Bravo! Although an element of physician culture remains convinced that improvement is all about outcomes and double-blind clinical trials, the executive culture at least has become so well-versed in quality jargon they can now use it to disguise a cost-cutting program. They’ve caught up with the rest of American management.

For those of you who perhaps didn’t read my last column because “health care” was in the title, let me repeat a quote from 1993 made by Donald Berwick, M.D., head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administration, that is applicable to all improvement:

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