Let's take a look at the inner workings of the health care system. This is a hospital in a major metropolitan area that is busy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Doctors and nurses are rushing about and there's tremendous paperwork behind every job that gets done. And this hospital is facing a grave problem. Patients come into the And are waiting to be admitted to a bed in the hospital. And between their time in the And the bed, there's a lag of time. And sometimes patients have waited up to seven hours in a hallway in a gurney. Which is a wheeled stretcher waiting for the bed to be available. Who's at fault? Who can find a solution to this problem? This team is a cross functional team helmed by the senior physician, but including representatives from nursing, from facilities, from safety, and from housekeeping. Let's see how they do after a meeting in which many times, not everybody is present. Maybe only 10% of the 2 hour meeting has everybody there trying to solve this problem together. Let's see how they do. >> Okay, so we have too many patients waiting in the hall. What can we do about it? We're getting calls all the time from Looking for beds, what's the problem, can you fix it? >> Look, this is the problem as I see it. By the time housekeeping cleans the room, they get in touch with the nurse, we have to put it in, confirm it, by the time we get that information to you, it's too late, hours have passed. >> It is an infrastructure problem. >> It's not infrastructure. >> I'm sorry, but we need better phone lines, and better information technology. >> That is absolutely untrue. New phone lines, a new IT system, that's a review board, that's labor, that's a huge budget. >> [CROSSTALK] >> And we don't even know if it's going to work. >> [CROSSTALK] >> But if it helps communication, I agree I think that might be a good idea. We need to talk about it. >> It's just way over the top solution. >> [CROSSTALK] >> Just another thing that I have to teach an entire staff of people. >> It's not that hard. >> I think the infrastructure problem is a personal infrastructure, there could be a way to open that. >> The nurses are overworked enough as they are. >> Yes but listen, we have the finances to do whatever we need- >> If we have the finances we should be hiring more nurses. >> [CROSSTALK] >> Is that the problem? >> Yes, that's the problem. >> There are people in the rooms who are cleaning who can do this job, they can report directly. >> Yeah, but we need to have the checks in place. >> [CROSSTALK] >> Unfortunately, your staff cannot be counted on. >> [CROSSTALK] >> There is a huge competency problem, huge! They don't show up, they take 25 minutes smoke breaks. >> [CROSSTALK] >> You're not even on our floor. >> But I am, and I feel like I consistently have problems and rooms are not cleaned consistently and adequately. >> [CROSSTALK] >> The problem is if the beds are not prepared, then we are in deep do-do. >> Absolutely, and there is no other way to do it but I don't have enough staff. >> [CROSSTALK] >> There's a way we could work within this infrastructure personally. >> [CROSSTALK] >> I just feel incredibly frustrated. I have almost no staff, and I have another team that feels unwilling to work with us, and if I could find a way- >> But how hard is it to pick up the phone? That's what I want to know. >> Do you know how busy a nurse- >> My staff can work with your staff, they just don't need to, they can go directly- >> I'm just unwilling to have these conversations when not everyone is present. >> Should we table this for another week? >> Yeah, great, okay, so how are we doing? >> We are nowhere.