Systems thinking in real life: lessons from the NUKA system of care

If you had walked into the community health centre in Southcentral Alaska, in the mid-nineties, you would have found yourself in a run-down, nondescript green and yellow building. You would have been identified with a number and you would have faced a very long (sometimes 24hrs) wait to be seen by a doctor. The waiting room would have been filled with people in a critical state, needing urgent medical care.

If you had walked into the same centre two decades later, you would have walked into a clean modern building…