Better Heart Attack Care Stems from Innovative Leadership

The conversation was enlightening and eye-opening, he says. He heard some difficult comments:

1. The ED staff was rude.
2. It was taking too long to offload the patient into the hospital.
3. The physicians didn't communicate very well with the EMS providers. They never found out what happened to the patient after they'd left.

Suehs and others representing Crouse in the listening sessions promised to work on those issues. The collaboration could have ended there, but as relationships developed with those in charge of quality on the EMS side, they thought they might be able to make a bigger difference. 

Suehs got a meeting with the chief quality officer of the largest EMS service in the area. What came out of it? "What if we actually did a quality initiative together?" Suehs says.