Wednesday, February 20th, should have been a good night of basketball for everyone. The second-ranked Duke Blue Devils and eighth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels were set to square off in a marquee matchup of college basketball royalty at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN. There have been numerous top-10 matchups between these two schools over the years, but this one had a different feel to it. Why? Because Zion Williamson was suiting up for the Blue Devils. Williamson, a 6'7, 284-pound freshman forward, is an athletic specimen who entered Wednesday's game averaging 21.6 points per game and 8.8 rebounds, but his stats aren't what glue the masses to their TV's. The Duke phenom became famous for his dunks in high school and has continued performing amazing athletic feats in the college ranks. Simply put, he is must-see TV! The cheapest tickets available to last Wednesday's game were all above $2,600.00 and the media build-up was huge, but the air was sucked out of the arena 33 seconds into the game.
As Williamson cut across the free throw line dribbling the basketball, he planted his left foot and suddenly collapsed to an apparent knee injury. Upon closer examination, it became clear that his Nike PG 2.5 shoe had basically... exploded. He exited the game with a knee sprain and did not return. While this was a huge blow to the game for the Blue Devils (North Carolina won 88-72), the game immediately lost most of its luster for the fans as well. But for Nike, what was expected to be a big night for a potential signee turned into a nightmare scenario. Imagine what went through Nike CEO Mark Parker's mind as we watched his shoe disintegrate on national television. What would the ramifications be? On Thursday, Nike's stock dropped more than 1% and the "shoebacle" was broadcast across every news outlet in America. The company issued the following statement: "We are obviously concerned and want to wish Zion a speedy recovery. The quality and performance of our products are of the utmost importance. While this is an isolated occurrence, we are working to identify the issue." While few business blunders are as widely broadcast as the Nike shoe blowout, no business is perfect. As we reflected on the situation with Williamson's shoe, we began to think about challenges we face within our practices and how we can handle them in order to properly care for our patients, staff, and practices. Here are a few thoughts... Your Practice Culture Dictates Your Success How we respond to challenges is important. Research shows that it is how we grow and, as doctors, it is our responsibility to lift our employees up when things have gone wrong. Often, employees are incentivized to hide their shortcomings out of fear. This could be fear of a harsh reprimand or even loss of their jobs. This can apply to errors at the front desk or in the exam room. Human beings are naturally wired to avoid short-term pain and these sudden urges to bury failure can have massive ramifications on medical practices because the patient likely knows when the staff has missed the mark, but it is easy for the doctor to be in the dark. Missing the opportunity to reconcile with unhappy patients can result in a decrease in quality of care, lost revenue, fewer referrals, and poor online reviews. The way to overcome this and increase transparency and honesty with your team is by establishing a high level of trust. A practice that is filled with people who don't trust each other will fail as everyone within the walls becomes more and more self-centered. Our goal should always be to run an error-free practice and creating a safe environment for employees to grow needs to be a high priority. But how do we decide how mistakes are defined in our practice? Failure is in the Eye of the Beholder When it comes to Nike, there is no doubt that the shoe failed. No one is giving them the benefit of the doubt or questioning that. But we know all too well that patients can feel like we have failed them when everything has gone off without a hitch. We have discussed managing patient expectations extensively in the past, but re-earning their trust when they believe we have failed (whether warranted or not) is crucial. The key here is not to remember that the "customer is always right." Instead, we must keep in mind that a failure to meet expectations can be remedied through empathy and communication. The patient's view of his or her experience in our practice is of utmost importance. Keeping this in mind at all times not only maintains a positive perception of our practice in the community, but it also puts us in a better position for when things do go wrong. Avoiding Making the Same Mistakes Twice Creating a process within your practice to handle shortcomings is necessary. The first step is to always address the patient first and remedy the situation. Our goal is to give them the highest quality of healthcare we can provide and this doesn't change when things don't go as planned. But after the patient has been addressed, handling the situation internally is the next step. Nike put out a statement acknowledging their mistake, but you can bet their team is putting in some late nights figuring out what went wrong and how to avoid it again in the future. We want to avoid making the same mistakes repeatedly in our practices, but it is important that we remember to treat ourselves and our team well when they occur. It is possible to address mistakes with empathy and care while simultaneously teaching and preventing a repeat occurrence. Conclusion The truth is that basketball shoes rip apart every single day. It just doesn't always happen on prime-time television. While the mistakes we make in our practice aren't broadcast on ESPN, they still happen and we get the opportunity to address them each and every day. Mistakes will happen, but it is our responsibility to make sure that our patients, our team, and our practice are healthy in the end.
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August 2019
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