It is seen by many as a “panacea”: a professional as minister or executive. The assumption is that if you have worked in healthcare yourself, preferably as a doctor or nurse, then you know the problems and the right solutions. But is that really the case? What do you think is going on in the […]

If you were to ask me to summarize in one sentence the enormous number of articles about staff shortages in healthcare, I would say: “Staff shortages seem to be an ‘insurmountable’ problem and, above all, a problem that is ‘far beyond the sphere of influence’ of doctors, nurses and other health care providers.” And yes, […]

There are already around 60,000 vacancies in Dutch healthcare and many more are still to come. The shortage of nurses and caregivers is expected to rise to approximately 125,000 by 2030. Shocking figures that underline the enormity of the challenges in healthcare. This has enormous consequences for patients, such as waiting lists, shortened consultation hours, […]

Although I’m not much of a risk taker, from time to time I take my mountain bike off the beaten track. This time, not such a wise choice. I ended up in thorned bushes. The sudden loss of speed made me tumble over. Normally you would use your legs to brace yourself against a fall. […]

As many of you already know, in my daily work I am inspired by companies, such as Toyota, and the management philosophy they developed, and was popularized by the name: ‘Lean’. Learning from companies like Toyota is like peeling an onion. Each time you hit a new layer. The closer to the core the more […]

One summer, during my vacation, I read the book: ‘Doctor is Sick’ by Gonny ten Haaft, a Dutch healthcare journalist. In it, Gonny reports on conversations she had with healthcare professionals and managers, who themselves ended up in their hospital as patients. The book inspired me to take notes of the images, conclusions and ideas […]

‘Medical device supplier regrets poor service’ – Skipr.nl, Skipr Editorial, June 13, 2014 [Anonymized] “A medical device supplier regrets the poor service it has provided in recent months. The company writes this on its website. It was raining complaints. The supplier attributes the poor service to the changing healthcare market. The government is making substantial […]

Everyone is saying that it’s now clearer than ever: “Healthcare needs to be improved continuously to prepare us for the increasing demand on our system.” A system that is becoming increasingly complex and cumbersome, and is burning-out our physicians and nurses. If it so clear, why aren’t we changing our system?! My hypothesis: we try […]

It’s not easy to admit, but even in the health care sector things still go wrong, regularly. Think of medication errors, post-operative infections, misdiagnoses, … , or as happened to me: a shoulder operation that had to be redone the next day, during which a nerve in my arm was damaged. Usually patients, doctors and the […]

Everybody is clear on the fact that we need to improve healthcare! If this pandemic made one thing clear, it is that there are limits to the quality and quantity of care we can provide to our community with our current system and processes. So, let’s start or continue, depending on where you are at, […]