Solving the Unsolvable

 

Dr. Emrick's Books, Blogs, and Podcasts

Let’s discuss something that keeps exceptional healthcare leaders up at night: Patient outcomes. Not just the idea of it but the messy, chaotic, beautiful machine of operations and outcomes that drive it. As a professional who’s spent more hours than I can count wrestling with this beast, I’ve got some thoughts. And my guiding light? A simple mantra: “I  seek to solve unsolvable problems.” Buckle up; this isn’t your average healthcare spiel. I want you to walk away curious, maybe even a little restless, about what’s possible. Picture healthcare operations as a Rubik’s Cube with a few stickers missing and some sides superglued. You twist and turn, chasing alignment, but when you think you’ve got it, another layer of complexity pops up, such as staffing shortages, supply chain hiccups, or a billing system that feels like it’s written in ancient runes. It’s not broken by accident; it’s a system built on decades of patchwork fixes, each solving yesterday’s problem while quietly birthing tomorrow’s headache.

I see it daily: hospitals running at razor-thin margins, clinicians burning out under administrative overload, and patients caught in the crossfire of delays and miscommunication. The outcomes? Well, they’re a mixed bag. We’ve got miracles, life-saving surgeries, cutting-edge therapies, and failures that gnaw at me. Preventable errors. Gaps in access. A diabetic patient was back in the ER because the system couldn’t get them insulin on time. Unsolvable? Maybe to some. To me, it’s a dare. Here’s where I get a little wild-eyed. What if we stopped shrugging at inefficiencies like they’re just the cost of doing business? What if we treated every snag, every lost record, every overbooked clinic as a puzzle begging for a solution? I’m not talking about utopian dreams here but about practical obsession. Because the truth is, healthcare’s “unsolvable” problems aren’t unsolvable; they’re just hard. And hard is my playground. Take data, for instance. We’re drowning in EHRs, wearables, and claims, but it’s like having a library with no index. I imagine a world where we harness that chaos into real-time insights. Imagine a nurse getting a ping that a patient’s vitals are trending wrong before the code blue. Or a rural clinic predicting supply needs based on weather patterns and flu spikes. It’s not sci-fi; we are not settling for clunky dashboards and siloed spreadsheets.

Let’s zoom out to outcomes because that’s where the rubber meets the road. I don’t just care about stats, though. Sure, I geek out over a good mortality rate drop. What keeps me going is the human side. The single mom who gets a same-day appointment instead of missing work. The grandpa who understands his meds because someone took the time to explain them in plain English. These aren’t footnotes; they’re the reality in today’s healthcare ecosystem. But here’s the kicker: our system isn’t built to prioritize those wins consistently. It’s a machine tuned for volume, not precision. I’ve seen too many “successful” discharges that end in readmissions because follow-up care was a logistical nightmare. Unsolvable? Nah. It’s a challenge screaming for someone to rethink the playbook maybe me, maybe you. So, why do I stick with this? Because the more complex the knot is, the more satisfying it is to untangle. I’ve spent my career chasing those “aha” moments, streamlining a process, bridging a gap, and turning a “that’s impossible” into a “we did it.” Healthcare operations and outcomes aren’t static; they’re a living, breathing riddle. And whenever we crack a piece of it, someone’s life improves. I’ll leave you with this: next time you hear about a healthcare snag, a wait time that’s too long, a bill that’s too high, or an outcome that’s too shaky, don’t just nod and move on. Ask why. Poke at it. Wonder what it’d take to fix it because that’s where I live, right in the thick of the unsolvable, hunting for the next breakthrough. Want to join me? The puzzle’s big enough for us all.