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Don’t just do something, sit there

October 15, 2024 | Steve Delaronde

Sometimes doing nothing is the best way to achieve a desired outcome. There are many times when not reacting to a situation produces a more desirable result than reacting would produce.

There are numerous examples in medicine when intervening too early or too often produces the unintended result. In these situations, the patient may actually be better served when doctors do nothing rather than perform unnecessary, and potentially harmful, procedures. These include:

Individuals can also act when inaction would have been the better choice. For example:

  • Moving retirement investments from stocks to cash after a precipitous drop in the stock market, thereby locking in one’s losses
  • Saying something out of anger to a loved one, rather than keeping one’s mouth shut
  • Hastily sending a text or email in response to a perceived slight or attack

Another pitfall is when we try to do something ourselves, when it would be more advisable to do nothing and let someone else do it. These include:

  • Letting an experienced pilot fly the plane
  • Hiring a professional window washer to wash the outside of your 100th floor apartment windows
  • Admitting when it is cheaper, safer, faster and smarter to leverage the expertise of another, particularly for tasks that require a significant amount of technical knowledge.

Health care is complex and requires multiple levels of expertise from a variety of disciplines, including the use of software and data to better identify, treat (or not treat) and improve the lives of patients. Leveraging health care data to get the best possible patient outcomes allows a health care organization to know when it is best to act, or when the patient will benefit the most by just doing nothing.

Steve Delaronde is a senior manager of product, regulatory and payer solutions, Solventum.

Tags
Quality care and outcomes