Improving Healthcare: Straight from the Heart | Sanjay Saint | TEDxUofM

Approximately 2 million Americans develop infections in hospitals every year despite fast-paced innovation in medical equipment and procedures. Despite the deadly nature of many of these infections, they can often be prevented with simple hand washing techniques. Dr. Sanjay Saint argues that the social learning that guides our behavior in institutions like grocery stores can be used to improve the quality of healthcare in our hospitals.

Sanjay Saint, MD, MPH, is the George Dock Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan and Chief of Medicine at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. His research is focused on preventing hospital-aquired infections, as well as implementation science and medical decision making. As a leader in the healthcare space, Dr. Saint is a Special Correspondent to the New England Journal of Medicine and a frequent contributor to other publications, including the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

[salahq]

"Hand are meant to heal"
The great Sanjay Saint

[DrTavaresChannel]

Great TEDx talk!

"Kindness, compassion and connectedness to others help guide one's life"

"The secret to high quality care is love. Love for your patient. Love for your colleague. Love for your hospital."

"If we have love, we will wash our hands before touching our patient. Hands after all are meant to heal"

[marialynn]

It upsets me that in the year 2016 there was an entire lecture devoted to the importance of washing hands - and it wasn't directed towards children. The amount of infectious diseases spread simply by indiviudals not washing their hands is ridiculous! How can health care professionals not wash their hands as directed?! It's the FIRST health lesson taught in life, and then is taught countless times after that, with ANY health professions, not just doctors or nurses. Saint did a fantastic job of explaining the problem, and all of it's perpetrators. He also offered really solid solutions, which were simply enough for ALL health professional to follow and potentially make a difference. While I thought this lecture and Saint were great, I still just can't seem to understand why hand washing, or rather the lack of, is still this big of an issue.

[lisasturm]

Vintage Sanjay! Nice job. I would just challenge instead of mindfulness for hand hygiene that instead it become mindless, e.g. such an engrained habit you don't even have to think about it (like buckling your seat belt). This type of hardwired 'habit' is virtually impossible to 'undo' once it is stored deep in the brain. This also frees the brain up to complete more complex tasks. The problem is that for many healthcare workers hand hygiene is not one of their 'habits'.

[lauriej.]

Great talk. In the 1940s, my father got an Academy Award for writing and directing a docudrama about Semmelweis. Medical history moves very slowly.

[DrAmanKapoor]

Thought provoking, stunning and highly applicable to various aspects of health care. Thank you Sir for this deeply meaningful talk

[jspo]

Lower the cost and increase coverage of medicare. Make it like medicaid. Lazies pay nothing. Why??? I wish i could have medicaid. No more expensive meds.