Opinon: The Cheesecake Factory isn't healthcare's answer

Earlier this month, Boston’s own Atul Gawande surprised many readers of The New Yorker by praising The Cheesecake Factory for demonstrating how the US healthcare system could provide more standardized, high-quality patient care. In the labor intensive world of healthcare delivery, as physician and patient safety advocate Lucian Leape, of the Harvard School of Public Health has pointed out, quality patient care (and thus customer satisfaction) depends on whether health care employers treat their staff respectfully. While the Cheesecake Factory may have developed a highly efficient and thus profitable business model, it seems to be one based on punitive labor practices.