Dr. Ron Walls
speaker
191 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2019
last heard Nov 2019
Dr. Ron Walls’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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When I was an undergraduate, I was in math and computer science and my goal was to do an MBA and think about business applications of computers.
I interestingly happened to go on a long car ride from the small town I grew up in in Northern British Columbia to Vancouver to try to find an apartment for my next year in university.
with a guy I didn't know.
And he had just finished his first year of medical school, and his father was one of the two general practitioners in my town.
And he talked to me about medical school in that 10-hour car trip.
And when I got in at the beginning of the trip, I was just going to finish my fourth year.
And by the time I got out, I was trying to figure out the logistics of taking all of my prereqs in one year.
And I thought, I'll apply once.
And if I get in, I'll go.
And if I don't get in, I won't apply again.
I'll just carry on with plan A. And I got into med school and away I went.
Part of the challenge is that a lot of these big complex organizations, like academic medical centers, started with the same principles as community hospitals.
Small numbers of departments, relatively small operations, not too complicated.
And as they've grown, the prowess and reputation of a manager has really been attributed to their span of control rather than necessarily their abilities.
So you see these very capable managers managing several units, and you've got a troubled unit, so you add it to that manager, and that person continues to accumulate this portfolio, and having the portfolio is at least as important as making sure that each element in the portfolio is optimized.
So I think we haven't really kept our eye on the ball in all circumstances about how we make each one of these units really work well.
An academic medical center probably is the best positioned to address these issues because we like to do analysis, we like to work with data, we like to measure results, and we like to perform to measurable outcomes.
So I think if an AMC can really focus on what it needs to do to get better, it probably has the best environment of all to succeed at that.
It is, and we have an obligation to advance care and deliver all this advanced expert care, but to do it in an increasingly value-based and demanding environment.
And I think in some areas we've been really, really good at that, and in other areas, not so good.
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