The first time I watched the film, The Matrix, I remember looking at the ones and zeroes on Neo’s screen and wondering, “What is the story? Where is the conflict?” Concealing the conflict until the high point of the film was a great way to build tension.
In healthcare, we don’t want to build tension. Yet, sorting through healthcare data can feel a lot like staring into the matrix where patients are shaped out of zeroes and ones. Sometimes we stare at the metrics wondering what the story is behind the numbers. Where are the living human beings in this picture and how are these numbers affecting them? Where is the tension leading us?
One way to look at patient care at a more personal, qualitative level is through the lens of subjective case studies, tracers, and interviews. The focus of this type of data is to tell the story of an event so that we can learn about it; the story of the patient can ground our perspective in the patient’s needs and can help keeps us connected to reality so that we do not get “lost in the matrix.” Subjective studies help healthcare professionals remember the human side behind all the numbers and these stories often reveal solutions that would not be found in raw data alone.
By Gayle Porter
