Health-care organizations as "patients": transforming the fundamental od paradigm

Hidden behind such frequently used phrases as "The system/policy requires...," "The organization has decided..." is one simple fact. Systems/policies don't drop from the sky etched in stone tablets and organizations don't decide anything. People make decisions and design systems and write policies. Embracing this fact increases the likelihood that the provision of health-care emanates from a "care dealership" in contrast to a "car dealership." Ignoring this fact leads to less humane, less effective, and more costly health-care. This chapter will challenge all of us concerned with caring for all of us--from Organizational Development (OD). Practitioners to CEOs to ... to ... all of us at some point in our lives--to step up to the need to transform our most basic paradigms. To remind ourselves that human beings give birth to, nurture, sustain, and care for that which we call an organization. In so doing, we will be able to begin to act from the premise that a health-care organization is itself a living breathing human organism, a "Patient" in need of care. The quality of care we afford this "Patient" directly and inevitably impacts the quality of care we are afforded as patients. Acting from this premise will transform all of health-care, all "care dealerships" ... and potentially "car dealerships" as well. OD professionals, therefore, can propel us all to a fourth dimension of caring for all of us.