But the old solutions that you already know are often the best practices, and consistency is whats missing.
This post originally appeared onJames Clears blog.
Almost overnight, healthcare professionals were stunned with its success.
Three months after it began, the procedure had cut the infection rate of I.C.U.
patients by sixty-six percent.
Within 18 months, this one method had saved 75 million dollars in healthcare expenses.
The strategy was immediately published in a blockbuster paper for theNew England Journal of Medicine.
This medical miracle was also simpler that you could ever imagine.
It was a checklist.
It was led by a physician named Peter Pronovost and later popularized by writer Atul Gawande.
Check, check, check, check, check.
These steps are no-brainers; they have been known and taught for years.
So it seemed silly to make a checklist just for them.
Still, Pronovost asked the nurses in his I.C.U.
In more than a third of patients, they skipped at least one.
This five-step checklist was the simple solution that Michigan hospitals used to save 1,500 lives.
Think about that for a moment.
There were no technical innovations.
There were no pharmaceutical discoveries or cutting-edge procedures.
The physicians just stopped skipping steps.
They implemented the answers they already had on a more consistent basis.
New Solutions vs. Old Solutions
We have a tendency to undervalue answers that we have already discovered.
We under-utilize old solutionseven if they are best practicesbecause they seem like something we have already considered.
Even more critical, just because a solution is implemented occasionally, doesnt mean it is implemented consistently.
We waste the resources and ideas at our fingertips because they dont seem new and exciting.
Performing fundamental business tasks each day, not just when you have time.
Writing Thank You notes each week.
Of course, these answers are boring.
Mastering the fundamentals isnt sexy, but it works.
Progress often hides behind boring solutions and underused insights.
You dont need more information.
You dont need a better strategy.
You just need to do more of what already works.
Photo byFocalPoint(Shutterstock).
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