We often discuss complexity in healthcare. Some things are complicated, others difficult to understand. We face ‘Wicked Problems’ – those complex, multi-factorial, multiple-stakeholder issues that defy straightforward solutions, for example, ‘the ageing population’, ‘poverty’ and ‘obesity’.
Healthcare is filled with problems that are both complex and complicated, indeed the everyday care of patients whether in hospital wards, general practice or outpatient clinics are all essentially complex.
We often discuss complexity in healthcare. Some things are complicated, others difficult to understand. We face ‘Wicked Problems’ – those complex, multi-factorial, multiple-stakeholder issues that defy straightforward solutions, for example, ‘the ageing population’, ‘poverty’ and ‘obesity’.
Healthcare is filled with problems that are both complex and complicated, indeed the everyday care of patients whether in hospital wards, general practice or outpatient clinics are all essentially complex.
In the past, complexity was seen as something difficult, a challenge that only academics or specialists could address; complexity is now something else, complexity is a feature of our daily lives and the lives of our patients.
How do we address this complexity? I would argue, that the days of a patient presenting with a solitary problem that has one simple or elaborate solution are on the wane. Why is this? I believe the reason is that for the complex problems we face on a daily basis, no one person is clever, sophisticated or indeed, complex enough to have the right answer.
We are living in the day of the multi-disciplinary team. Only when we utilise the knowledge, experience and feelings of the group – nurses, doctors, therapists, carers and patients all working together, can we hope to find a solution to the problems we face.
Picasso realised over a hundred years ago that there is more than one side to any scene, more than one angle with which to approach the world. In healthcare, we must now learn that things are too complex, too complicated to go it alone – we must work in teams, and for the really difficult problems, in networked teams, only then can we hope to stand a chance of providing accurate and appropriate diagnoses, management plans and solutions.
If we get it right, the Improvement Academy, as part of the Academic Health Science Network, stands a good chance of helping us along that journey.
