Urology Today

Ryan P. Terlecki, MD, FACS, presents a model for quality improvement for healthcare providers, drawing from professional sports coaching. He begins by articulating the professional parallels between physicians and quarterbacks, noting that the best performers in each field have strong professional support networks and constant performance evaluation.

Dr. Terlecki then discusses how quality improvement measures used in professional sports apply to medical practice. He supports his points by presenting data from studies where “playbacks” of urologic surgeries were used to effectively improve surgeon performance.

Dr. Terlecki concludes by emphasizing the benefits of being open to feedback and making efforts to improve for both healthcare professionals and patients. He encourages healthcare professionals to be open to both giving and receiving coaching in their practices, and provides actionable advice for implementing these quality improvement measures.

Dr. Terlecki provides guidance on tailoring patient intake questionnaires to keep the focus on the patient’s issue and possible approaches. He gives examples of open and closed questions for male genital pain.

Dr. Terlecki then discusses the importance of setting patient expectations regarding diagnoses and what they should expect from the provider, particularly when the provider does not specialize in pain management. He then discusses common, uncommon, and overlooked causes of male genital pain.

Dr. Terlecki concludes by walking through this algorithm from intake to assessment to diagnosis and treatment. He emphasizes the importance of not dismissing patient input on treatment, but still strictly adhere to evidence-based treatment over unproven or alternative treatments.