I hold surgeons accountable. I hold nurses accountable. And I hold myself accountable, every single day.
In healthcare, an unfinished task is more than a missed deadline. It could be a missed diagnosis, a delayed treatment, or a life at risk.
The step most people skip
Management basics apply everywhere: idea, planning, execution, follow-up. Most people nail the first three. Follow-up is where systems fail.
I have seen it. You communicate clearly. You give direction. You assume it is done. It isn’t. Or it is done, but not the way it needed to be.
So I check, every time: my work, my team’s work and my own decisions. I do this because patient safety is non-negotiable, and it has nothing to do with whether I trust people.
The second look
There is a small habit that changed how I practise medicine. In surgery, we call it the “second look.” After what feels like a perfect procedure, you go back. You check. You verify. Excellence demands it.
I have carried this into everything I do. Even after drafting what I believe is a flawless report, a patient referral or a clinical document, I revisit it the next day. Almost every time, I find something: a small error, a missing detail, a sentence that doesn’t say what I meant it to say.
It doesn’t shake my confidence. It builds it. The most dangerous assumption in medicine, and in life, is thinking you are done. Checking yourself is a form of self-mastery.
Accountability without fear
An error-free environment in healthcare is the standard we owe every patient who walks through our doors. It is not a luxury. The moment we stop following up, we stop leading, and in medicine that is a cost no one can afford to pay.
That is why I want every team I work with to build a culture of accountability instead of a culture of fear. Patients are counting on us, even when we think no one is watching.