ABSTRACT
Manager Michael Reed shook his head in disbelief as he held the worn rubber tip from the examining room footstool. How could such a little thing cause so much trouble? Reed had been summoned from the cafeteria an hour earlier by the vice president of patient services, who reported a patient had just fallen in Reed’s department. A subsequent review of the patient’s condition in the hospital’s emergency department and discussion with the employee who had been with the patient when he fell had shaken Reed’s usual calm composure. The discussion with the vice president had raised his blood pressure, but news that the CEO wanted to see him at 3 p.m. had rattled him. Reed seldom saw his CEO, except in large group meetings, and he had never been summoned for problems in his own department.
