As I just got done finished reading the column in Businessweek with the title of this post, I received the following link from Hilary Worthen, MD, about the value of good customer service:

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These ideas must be on the minds of a lot of people these days, as Jack and Suzy Welch also wrote about it in their column “The Importance of Being Sticky.”

The best companies understand that a relationship of trust and engagement pays off handsomely, and this includes empowering staff closest to customers with abilities to correct errors and manage inconveniences.

Think about the analogies we use in health care without even thinking about it….

I recently had the experience of an editor doing a really great job improving an article I am writing for a peer-reviewed publication. One of the suggested edits, though, started with the sentence, “Armed with information, the doctor can….” They gladly accepted my re-edit and commentary that we are not war with our patients, we are at peace with them.

What is our view of human nature within the health care system and should we change it?

December 24th through December 26th:

• iMedix - Find Health Information, Share Symptoms & Discuss Treatments - Israeli startup that connects patients to each other with the same condition(s). Imagine if their doctors could be part of the conversation.
• Metropolitan Police Department Crime Search, Washington DC - A handy tool for looking at crime statistics in your area. All the information is there.
• Customer Experience Index Snapshot: Health Plans by Bruce D. Temkin - Forrester Research - There’s an enormous opportunity for health plans to radically improve their customer experience ? and go after the majority of consumers that are interested in switching plans.
• gladwell dot com - personality plus - Malcolm Gladwell writes about corporate use of personality tests. I have not really been a fan of Myers-Briggs myself.
• Unicru Test Items - A potential employee posts the Unicru personality test used by many retailers.
• Rock Creek Park - Monuments, Statues and Memorials (U.S. National Park Service) - Descriptions of memorials in the Mount Pleasant / Columbia Heights area
• macosxhints.com - 10.5: Move apps between spaces with the app switcher - For Mac users out there, this is a tip that makes the new Spaces feature very usable. I’ve had it turned on for a few months now and getting the hang of it (I always try new things for a bit, but know when to stop trying them, this is why I am early major