Takeaway
You don’t need to make big changes to improve your clinical practice—instead, try adopting a few new daily micro‑habits—such as two‑minute follow‑up calls or using teach‑back. Lo and behold, these may lead to deeper relationships and better health outcomes for patients.
Lifelong learning in clinical excellence | March 4, 2026 | 1 min read
By Scott Wright, MD & Gretchen Miller, MSc, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Medicine is full of complexity, time pressure, and rapid change. It’s tempting to search for big, sweeping solutions to improve the care of patients. Yet the day-to-day reality is that what most reliably moves the needle isn’t a dramatic overhaul, but modest, repeatable behaviors that quietly stack up over months and years. That’s the central thesis of Jeff Olson’s “The Slight Edge”—the idea that simple, small, consistent actions—compound into meaningful outcomes.
The author offers many insightful tips that apply to improving patient care. Here are five takeaways (out of many more) from the book that I’m reflecting on as I work to improve my care of patients:
1. Small daily actions compound.
Choose one or two micro-habits that directly impact patient experience—one example is to call a patient for a three-minute check-in. Over time, this can build stronger rapport with patients.
2. Address different domains in the micro-habits you adopt.
It’s rarely ideal to put all your eggs in one basket. With patients, it’s hard to know what efforts will be most helpful for them. Here are two distinct patient care examples:
Improving health outcomes: Make it a regular habit to follow up on patients’ lifestyle goals and give encouragement and praise as appropriate.
Checking in about financial barriers: Routinely ask about whether costs and reimbursements are influencing patients’ ability to participate in the care plan; consider when you need to help them access generic medications and financial assistance programs.
3. Track and measure.
Create a mechanism to assess your performance. It could include, for example, percentage of visits using teach-back, or follow-up call rates, or your patient portal message response time. Review weekly for five minutes and then adjust.
4. Practice gratitude.
Start care team huddles with a recent “win” and an appreciation of someone in your group. This may help improve team cohesion and reduce burnout.
5. Embrace responsibility.
Own mistakes. A simple apology can go a long way with patients and their loved ones, as well as coworkers.
This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.