My father used to complain that he had “tired ears.” I didn’t understand what he meant until I became a parent: When I took a walk with my two-year-old son and he asked “Why?” about everything we saw, I found out how little I knew about the world around us. And I couldn’t just tell him that I’d run a search on the internet when we get home. He needed to know why grass grows between the cracks in the pavement and why balls bounce back at him, but rocks did not.
My father also said that if he couldn’t explain something to a two-year-old, it was likely that he didn’t really understand it; it’s easy to hide behind a big vocabulary and access to the global knowledge of the internet. But walking across the lawn with my child made me realize how little I truly knew.
Sometimes, we take a walk with our loved ones through the healthcare environment and are surprised by what we experience. Does it really take that long to get results? Is that test or procedure safe? When will the doctor see us? Where patient tracers focused on the patient’s experience in a process, case studies pull together all the details into a more complete picture of critical moments in the patient experience.
Case studies can be as simple as a walk through the patient experience asking “Why?” (just like my two-year-old) and taking notes on anything unusual or interesting. A case study may include staff or management interviews about the case to ask for clarification.
By Gayle Porter
