There is a certain grocery store I love to frequent. When you walk in, you can purchase a glass of wine or beer to help enhance your shopping experience. At their deli, you can have a brick-oven, hand tossed pizza made to order (which they prepare while you shop). During a recent visit, I approached the pizza counter and requested a large pepperoni and a large Hawaiian. The guy behind the counter, looked at me perplexed and stated, “I think we are out of pineapple”. ‘Isn’t this a grocery store,’ was my immediate thought. Although the deli running out of pineapple was not his fault, it was now his problem. When it comes to issues that develop for customers, even though the person dealing with it is not the person responsible, it now becomes their issue to solve. The same is true of patient care. Every day there are countless obstacles that come along which are not the fault of the staff, nurse or doctor tasked with handling them, but that should NEVER get them off the hook. The blame game should never go far when it comes to patients and their families. The entire team needs to understand in the fast-paced world of health care, stuff happens. When it does, we need to react accordingly and fix it. Too often we hear things like, “This should have been handled by department x”, “They should have told you that”, or, simply, “It’s not my problem.” Getting back to my pizza order, within about three seconds of thinking, the guy politely stated, “I will just grab a pineapple out of produce and get this done for you.” Total ownership of the situation. Help your team embrace the concept of always solving the problem. Your patients will love you for it!