Quigley Down Under
KLAS’ culture, as those who’ve interacted with us can tell you, is full of quirks. For example, the IT department named the printers around the office things like “chainsaw” and “deforester” as a reminder to keep our paper-waste to a minimum.
Our conference rooms are also named with more subtle message in mind. For example, we have one named Arches and another called the Quigley. On the walls of the Quigley you’ll see two different groups of photos.
One is the main Advisory Board to KLAS, (a group of healthcare CIOs, CEOs, CMIOs etc. who help to guide our research efforts) the other a collage of seemingly random shots of mustachioed Tom Selleck and Australian aboriginals.
At first glance, these two groups of photos couldn’t possibly be related. But to many here at KLAS, they’re a reminder. Their placement as decor in the Quigley conference room is intentional.
Now, for those of you who haven’t seen 1990 western classic Quigley Down Under, we recommend watching it in all its campy, 90s glory. It’s a film that pits the unflappable hero, Tom Selleck against the cunning villain, Alan Rickman. The climax of the film comes when a detachment of corrupt cavalry come to haul our poor hero away to be hanged.
Out-manned and outgunned, the lone Quigley looks to be in a tight spot. Fortunately for him, the aboriginals (who he was hired to kill, but chose to defend instead) come to his aid. In true cinematic fashion, Quigley’s aboriginal friends surround the troops, who beat a hasty retreat.
At KLAS, we often draw a metaphor between this scene and the work that we do. KLAS is dedicated to finding the truth and sharing it with the industry. Often, our data comes to the aid of providers, who leverage the insights we gather from providers to make the best decisions possible.
This has (on more than one occasion) lead to conflict with those who didn’t like what we had to say.
We know they didn’t like it because their teams of lawyers told us so.
In these instances, we often turn to our provider friends and our board of advisors and ask, “What is the right thing to do?” They typically answer, “Is what you are publishing accurate? Is it honest? Is it impartial? Will it help our peers make better decisions? If so, you need to publish it and we’ll defend you.”
We may think that, like Quigley with his aboriginal friends, we’re the ones doing the advocating – however sometimes it’s the other way around.
As we move further into 2017, we wanted to give our provider friends a chance to share why they use KLAS when making tough Health IT decisions. Throughout the coming year, we’ll be posting their stories here, under the headline #IUseKLASBecause.
We’re incredibly grateful for the healthcare professionals who’ve spent countless hours working with us to achieve our mission, and we’re excited to share with you their stories of success.