When Systems Fail, People Pay the Price

This past week, I've been navigating the healthcare system with my husband, who was hospitalized due to a complex and unresolved health issue. It has been an intense lesson in advocacy, patience, and the essential role of communication, systems, and mindset in shaping how people experience care. As we sat in the hospital room, what kept resonating in my mind (besides my deep concern for his health) was the unsettling familiarity of the breakdowns I observed—not only in healthcare but also in business.

There are some lessons you don’t fully appreciate until you’re living them. And this experience reminded me that whether we’re talking about patients or customers, employees or clients, consumers or partners—the principles are the same. People need systems that talk to each other. Teams that actually communicate. Leaders who put people ahead of process.

Here are four moments from this experience that I can’t stop thinking about—and how they map directly to the business world, across B2B, B2C, and B2B2C settings:

Integrated Systems Matter (Or: When Your Surgical Report Doesn’t Transfer)

When my husband was transferred to a new hospital, we found out that his surgical report from the first hospital didn’t make it over. The file was listed, but couldn’t be opened. Meanwhile, the new care team was trying to make decisions without access to that critical piece of information.

In business, we do this all the time. A customer moves from sales to onboarding, from onboarding to support, and entire histories vanish. Data is siloed, systems don’t sync, and trust erodes. Whether you're managing a SaaS platform, a consumer experience, or an ecosystem of partners, disconnected systems lead to delayed action and frustrated users.

Documentation & Knowledge Sharing Can’t Be Optional

Some key labs didn’t transfer either. Fortunately, I had copies saved on my phone and laptop and was able to get them in front of the specialist quickly. Without that, we would have lost more time and possibly had to repeat unnecessary tests.

On the flip side, I’ve been incredibly grateful for healthcare portals that update in near real-time. I’ve been able to access doctor notes, lab reports, and clinical impressions almost as soon as they’re entered—and that level of transparency and accessibility is a model more industries should aspire to.

In companies, institutional knowledge often lives in someone’s inbox, brain, or a folder no one else knows about. If your systems or teams rely on one person remembering to fill in the gaps, you’re one vacation (or one departure) away from a crisis. For B2B2C businesses in particular, this breakdown can cascade downstream—hurting not just your customer, but their customers, too.

People-First, Not Process-First

So much of the hospital experience has been dictated by system constraints: who had access to what, when a transfer could happen, which specialties were available. But to a person in pain, none of that matters. What matters is feeling seen, heard, and helped.

One of the most frustrating moments was during the actual transfer. A third-party company managed the transfer system and maintained the digital portal—and during that transition, my husband didn’t appear in the system of the hospital he was physically in. Because of that, the nurses couldn’t administer his pain medication. He was there in person, in pain, but invisible in the system. And no one on the ground—not the nurses, not the doctors—had control over when the transfer would be finalized or when that data would reflect reality.

This disconnect between system status and human presence is a perfect example of how a process-first mindset can fail people. The process said, "he's not here yet." But the person was there, and in need.

In business, too many decisions are made to optimize for process instead of people. We forget that the customer doesn’t care about our internal structure. They care about outcomes. Responsiveness. Humanity. This is true in B2B enterprise deals and in consumer-facing brands alike—and even more so when your product or service touches lives on both sides.

Advocacy Shouldn’t Be the Only Path to Good Service

I've spent much of the last week filling in details my husband forgot or didn’t think were important. I chased labs, hunted for lost records, clarified symptoms. I became the person connecting the dots.

In companies, we often rely on power users, internal champions, or a few proactive partners to hold everything together. But that’s a failure of design. A good system doesn’t depend on advocacy to work. It empowers it, but doesn’t require it to function.

I’m not writing this from a place of frustration—though there’s been plenty of that. I’m writing it from a place of clarity. Sitting in his hospital room, I saw my own work with new eyes. The systems we build, the processes we design, and the teams we lead all reflect what we value most.

If we value people first, it has to show up in the way we operate. Not just in what we say, but in what we build.

Because whether someone is a patient, a customer, a partner, or a teammate, they deserve more than a fragmented experience. They deserve care, clarity, and connection.

Let’s build for that.