The Point of Care: how one leader took a health service from ordinary to extraordinary
Available in paperback, e-book - and now audiobook! Order details below.
Carol Mathewson has a problem. Lots of them, in fact. As the new CEO of Kinsley Valley Health Service, she’s taken over the helm of an organisation that ranks last in the state for both consumer and staff satisfaction. She loves a challenge—but having just six months to get those results out of the basement is more of a challenge than she bargained for. Her Executive Team is divided, many staff are resistant to change and there are players inside and outside of the organisation willing her to fail. Read an excerpt - and listen to the audiobook version of the Prologue - below.
In The Point of Care, I take care and service improvement from the dry and technical topic it can be and embed it in the story of a CEO trying to make a difference against the odds and against time. This is a story that anyone in health and human services can relate to, and can help get the key players in your organisation about what a quality system is and what it can do for your consumers, your staff - and you!
And it's not just a story; all throughout are my best tools, tips and models for creating consistently great care in your service including: leadership, change, planning for great care, implementation and improvement; and the human side of change is also tackled via staff engagement and cultivating the right mindset and culture for the best results.
Anyone in a leadership role in a health or human services organisation, responsible for providing a great service, will relate to and be able to apply The Point of Care lessons and tools.
I hope it helps you in your quest to create great care with your consumers!
Purchase The Point of Care paperback, e-book and audiobook:
TPOC PDF e-book is available via this website ($14.99 AUD): click the Buy Book Now button below.
TPOC paperback book ($25.00 AUD, $17.50 USD) is available via this website: click the Buy Book Now button below, or on Amazon
TPOC Audiobook is now available for purchase at the following friendly audiobook distributors - click a link and search The Point of Care (and leave a review - I'd really appreciate it as it helps spread the word!):
Apple Books (Set Media Type to Audiobooks)
Google Play Books
Scribd
Playster
Nook Audiobooks
eStories
Audiobooks
Purchase all three of my quality system paperback books or e-books together and get 15% off the regular purchase price.
About TPOC
Being a clinician I have been taught that quality is done once a month and then forgotten. After reading Point of Care, there is a sudden realisation that how individual health practitioners view quality is oh so wrong! The Point of Care has allowed me to understand what quality truly is and how we all fit into the quality puzzle no matter what role we hold in a health care service.
Dr Balding has opened my eyes on how each moment of interaction between carer and client is a chance to make sure our quality systems are working effectively and efficiently. It is difficult to summarise my learnings into only a few sentences, however if you want to learn about how to build a team, make positive impacts in your health service or just want to broaden your knowledge of quality then this book is for you. It is ideal for any person working in a health care setting and I highly recommend a read. I finished the book in two days!
- Noel Kumar, former Quality Co-ordinator Scalabrini Village.
I have just finished your book The Point of Care and it was fantastic.
The book was really engaging. I was fascinated by the journey the health service went through to get to Great Care and the mystery of who was leaking to the press kept me guessing all the way through. I generally learn best by doing so I feel that by reading this one first and having an idea of how these things fit together, that my reading of Create a Great Quality System will be much improved.
- Kai Zauner, Quality Advisor, MECWACARE
Fantastic resource. Started reading and couldn’t stop. Could relate to the characters, the situations and the challenges. Would highly recommend to anyone who wants a realistic roadmap of how to make a difference within complex organisations.'
- Joanne Hardy, Quality and Safety Partner, Silver Chain Group.
TPOC PROLOGUE AND INTRO... (see below for Prologue audio)
The story of how Kinsley Valley Health Service (KVHS) transforms from ordinary to extraordinary is fiction. But it’s very much based on the real world. Every health and human service organisation faces the struggles described in this story: how to create consistently high quality care, how to comply with governance requirements while staying focused on what’s important, how to enable and motivate staff to lead change, how to manage the cynics and shift the boulders. Here's how it begins...
'The Minister for Health sat stony-faced. This was clearly not a social call.
“Last. Last! You should be ashamed, Carol. You’re the CEO but you don’t seem to know what’s happening in your own health service!” The minister pointed past Carol. “Look at what’s going on under your very nose!”
Carol Mathewson stared out the window of her office at the sparkling new inpatient building opposite. Hundreds of doctors, wearing identical white coats, poured out of the sliding glass doors and down the street in military formation. Like the water carrying brooms in Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, their march was relentless and apparently endless.
The minister gazed at her severely. “So, what are you going to do about it? Don’t give me excuses. I’m looking for a solution!”
Carol woke with a jump from the dream—or nightmare—that had disturbed her every morning that week, feeling a mix of relief and frustration. Relief, because who wants to be stuck in a dream like that? And frustration, because she wished she could hear her own answer. The minister may have been a dream, but her concerns reflected stark reality. She did need solutions, and fast. In fact, a little sorcery wouldn’t go astray right now. Carol had worked in healthcare all her professional life, and disgruntled doctors were not unusual. But her health service being on the bottom of the state “league ladder” for both consumer and staff satisfaction? That was a new experience and she had no intention of getting used to it...'
 02-The-Point-Of-Care-Prologue.mp3 (11MB) |
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