Hold Practitioners Accountable For What We Can Control

Though health practitioners have accepted a great deal of responsibility in overseeing patient compliance, the responsibility should rest in part with the patient.

By Grace L. Duffy, MBA, LSSMBB, ASQ Fellow
Posted on: July 2, 2012

Current discussion on accountability in healthcare has taken a broad scope on how much the practitioner can be held accountable for patient results. Although many defined protocols have validated treatment data, other treatment recommendations are much less controllable at the practitioner level. Any directive must take into account what patient behavior can be controlled, what can be strongly influenced, and what may be out of range for mandating practitioner accountability. Covey's Control/Influence/Concern model1 is a helpful tool for supporting constructive dialog among stakeholders of an overall community health vision.

Accountability
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) creates a new, federally financed mechanism for healthcare delivery via Medicare: the accountable care organization (ACO).

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