“The Pitt” and the patient: Reflections on Empathy and Health Systems
I may be late to the proverbial “party” on this one (as usual), but I recently watched The Pitt, (a show set over one 15-hour hospital shift in a hospital’s ER in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania), and given my work history in healthcare, some of the themes really hit home. I’ve never worked in a hospital, but I was struck by how the show pulls the viewer into every small moment, every decision, every bit of exhaustion and empathy that defines a day in healthcare.
Having spent much of my career on what’s often called the “admin side” of health, I found myself reflecting on the tension between clinicians and administrators that runs through the story. Though The Pitt is based on the U.S. system, I know the challenges and tensions aren’t unique to the United States, it’s something often felt in Canada as well. Whether tracking performance indicators or caring for a patient in crisis, everyone’s under strain.
In the show, Dr. Robbie lashes out at hospital leadership for being too focused on quality scores. Those macro-level KPIs can seem detached from the person needing immediate care, but as someone who’s worked in health system operations, I couldn’t help but think: it all matters. The metrics, the money, the moments are all part of the same ecosystem. The challenge is aligning them and balancing them with the same goal.
Most of my own work has been in what I would call the “private but not private” side of healthcare — leading integrated medical centres that bridge universal coverage and patient-paid services. It’s a space that doesn’t always fit neatly into policy conversations or appeals for funding or support, but it’s where I learned that if we are truly to solve our healthcare crisis, we need to recognize the unique role that all providers and organizations play in the patient's journey. Healthcare truly does depend on effective collaboration, humility, and respect across every level.
In the end, The Pitt reminded me that no health system is immune to stress and conflicting demands. Yet amid all the pressure and complexity, one truth that connects everyone working in healthcare: the patient is the reason for the work. Whether a physiotherapist supporting a post-op patient in a private setting, a nurse working a night shift or the head of a health authority, we must ensure that the patient never gets lost between the spreadsheets and the stretchers. As Canada’s health system becomes increasingly disjointed, spanning public, private, non-profit, and hybrid arrangements, it is imperative to keep the patient at the centre of it all and begin looking at the system from this higher level lens - not simply the universal system or with the hospital lens.
The patient journey doesn’t end when the patient leaves the hospital. As care becomes more distributed across public, private, and community settings, improving that transition is critical and offers a huge opportunity to improve the patient’s journey and outcome.
If you work in allied health or integrated care and also recognize a huge opportunity to improve the patient journey, lets connect and exchange ideas.