Archive for the ‘Leadership’ category

« Older Entries

Modern Healthcare’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell”

August 1st, 2010

Get Modern Healthcare on Kindle

The July 19th edition of Modern Healthcare had a very revealing article by Melanie Evans entitled “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” The cut line under that title was “A third of physicians in a  study don’t feel obligated to report impaired [fellow] docs.”  Ms. Evans went on to describe the fact that the word impaired refers to drugs, alcohol or mental illness.  The study was from the Journal of the American Medical Association and it queried nearly 1,900 physicians.  Having been involved with the management of hospitals for over two decades, the results of this study shocked me.  Not because I didn’t believe it was possible; not because I didn’t believe there could be a problem but because it was clearly not my experience.  Yes, there were impaired physicians, administrators and staff members, but the programs available to them were comprehensive, thorough and unending.

If the question was posed, “Is there a problem with drugs, alcohol, and mental illness among physicians?,” my answer would have been  yes.  The same, however, is true of administrators, staff and employees.  None of those exposed to an environment that intersects with life and death issues on a daily basis and that requires the incredibly long hours necessary to keep the  proverbial “wheels on the bus” is without risk of these problems.  Add to that the relative ease of going  from one “friend” to another to get the prescription that is needed, and we have created a potential formula for disaster.

The seriousness of the outcomes derived from this series of questions is not something that any of us “in the business” is in any way ignoring.  It is real.  It definitely could result in injury andor death through medical errors.  So, the question becomes one of management, monitoring and self-policing.  The airline industry pays very close attention to the impairment of their pilots. Why?  Their crashes are typically not between one pilot and one passenger.  They are large, emotional events that impact literally thousands of lives.

When will the medical community begin to embrace the same standards as the airline industry?  It seems to me that we are currently “on  the move toward that objective now,” and as the public and government put more and more pressure on the healthcare industry to be transparent, it will become harder and harder to hide those shadow surgeries that went wrong  or those mis-diagnosed cases that could be traced back to impaired professionals.

Image credit: Edie Falco as Nurse Jackie - (c) Showtime Networks

The Modern Healthcare article ended with the statement that doctors “need more education on programs that evaluate and manage treatment and monitoring for impaired doctors.”  I agree . . . in this case, more is better, but how many “Nurse Jackies” (i.e., the hypothetical impaired employees) do we have flying low throughout our facilities as well?  The healthcare industry needs to pay attention to all of its impaired at all levels.

  • Share/Bookmark

No comments »

Posted in Healthcare, Hospitals, Leadership, medical errors, workplace

Tags:

Big Bird vs. The Status Quo

June 4th, 2010

Feeling “funny,” is something that would describe me pretty well today. Not ha ha funny, stomach ache funny. I’m thinking that Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John Wayne, Amelia Earhart, and even Hawkeye Pierce from MASH may have ruined me. They stood up for what they believed, right or wrong, left or right. They had chutzpah, nerve, and . . . well, you know.

So, what’s making me feel funny? It’s those darn birds. Those birds have touched my heart. Tell me this; how can you not feel empathy for the baby birds being oiled down in their nests, and how about the tiny little birds that are still flying around a few feet from the oncoming disaster with absolutely no clue as to how bad things are going to be in a very short amount of time. I’ll admit that, unlike my mom, I’m not a passionate bird lover, but those big, oil soaked birds are really getting to me.

I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m allergic to shell fish, and even though, according to some oil company spokesperson, “Louisiana isn’t the only place that has shrimp,” according to my memory, their shrimp was some of the best in the world. So, if you’re not a big bird fan, how about a big shrimp fan, or a big fan of places where people live? How about a big fan of being able to sit on the beach or of jobs; fishing jobs, tourism jobs, even oil jobs? What will it take to get our leaders to show some real passion? I’m thinking Sesame Street.

We all know that getting the kids involved has helped remind us to start wearing our seat belts and bike helmets, to stop drinking and driving, and now texting and driving. Maybe we need Sesame Street to get our country to finally scream out from the top of their lungs, “S-T-O-P it.“ Could you imagine Big Bird or better still the President of that oil company dressed as Big Bird all soaked in oil being pushed out into the Gulf and gasping for air as he slowly is washed away forever? It would make the time they did the “Mr. Hooper is dying thing” seem tame.

One of my favorite sayings is “The problem is never the problem,” and the problem here is, once again, the status quo. It’s that philosophy of “don’t change ANYTHING because I’m personally comfortable with my life.” Just this week, a group of scientists who literally have brought 44 people out of deep, irreversible comas; soldiers, policemen, firemen, coal miners, and little boys and girls had their federal grant blocked because the status quo scientists and doctors involved said that “It was not the traditional methodology for treating coma patients.” Yikes, tell that to the people who lived, many of whom are back to leading functional lives. Come to think of it, that would be a good Sesame Street show, too. Oscar the grouch in Critical Care with tubes, the Cookie Monster administering the Last Rites, and Bingo Bango he’s awake and grouchy again.

Is it possible that no one wants to stand up for what they believe in and take it on the chin anymore? Somewhere there still must be some lines, some sacred requirements that we must meet in order to qualify as human beings on this planet? Could you imagine how different those John Wayne movies would have been? “It’s okay, pilgrim, let ‘em rob the bank. We need their support for re-election.” How about Neil Armstrong? “You want me to do what?” “Are you crazy?”

I still feel funny. Where the heck is Big Bird and Hawkeye when you really need them? We’ve had seagull management in this country for far too long now as they “Fly in, squawk, poop on our heads, and fly back to D.C. “ Pelicans UNITE!

  • Share/Bookmark

No comments »

Posted in Current Affairs, Leadership, inspiration

Speaking This Year

May 20th, 2010
Nick Jacobs, FACHE - F. Nicholas Jacobs - Healing Hospitals - Sunstone Consulting

Nick Jacobs, FACHE

As some of you may have noticed, last year was a tough year for education, travel, and some forms of consulting. It was “the economy, stupid.” A number of our major public speaking engagements were canceled or postponed, because hospitals stopped sending employees to educational conferences. In fact, at one of the leadership conferences where we spoke last year, there were only 90 people in attendance. The previous year, there had been nearly 500.

Well, thank goodness, things have picked up a bit, and we will be speaking a few more times over the next several months. The following is an up-to-date list of locations, dates, and topics currently scheduled:

  1. Lake Erie Regional Cooperative/Amerinet Conference, Toledo, OH, May 7th, 2010
    “Redesigning the Patient Experience”
  2. Risk Management and Patient Safety Institute, Lansing, Michigan, August 27, 2010
    “Blogging and Transparency -Increasing Patient Satisfaction through Web 2.0″
  3. Planetree Conference, Denver, Colorado, October 8th, 2010
    “Navigating the challenges faced while transitioning to the Planetree model of care”
  4. Central Peninsula Hospital, Soldotna Alaska, October 14, 15th
    “Planetree”
  5. Waverly Health Center, Waverly, Iowa, October 20-22,
    Topic: To be announced
  • Share/Bookmark

1 comment »

Posted in Healthcare, Leadership, Travel

Tags:

Jacobs in Wonderland

April 16th, 2010

Back in 1969, a famous singer by the name of Peggy Lee came out with a song entitled, “Is That All There Is?”  She sang about her lifetime experiences of having her house burn down, having attended and then realizing that she hated the circus, and then being dumped by her boyfriend.  After each one of those experiences she would sing, “If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing.  Let’s break out the booze and have a ball.”

This song could only be described as a “downbeat song of disillusionment.”  It probably contributed to the creation of most of the new antidepressant drugs that we have today.  Now that was  a wonderful contribution to society that evolved that even Peggy could never have foreseen.  So, for an optimist, one must dream that “from trials and tribulations good things may happen.”  Or, if you’re the head of a pharmaceutical company, you might say, “from depressing songs we can make billions of dollars.”  (It’s a joke …relax.)

Truthfully, we all spend time each day kicking away the many disappointments that come at us as we work our way through the myriad speed bumps that come up during our own personal journeys.  This week was a week of observation for me.  I spent time observing what is going right and what is going wrong at all levels: personal,  business, national, and international for friends, fellow employees, relatives, other loved ones, companies, and politicians.   During my periods of reflection it became clear to me once again that “change is inevitable.”  In fact, change is life and life is change.   Those who can embrace it, deal with it, and make the best of it seem to thrive.

Leland Kaiser - Healthcare Futurist - Nick Jacobs, FACHE - Healing HospitalsThe challenge for most of us seems to be that of being able to get ourselves into harmony with what we want. Some days we have good thoughts, then not-so-good thoughts, and then the next day good thoughts and so on.  It has become clear to me that we need to reach a permanent state of believing without any doubt in exactly what we want to have happen.  Then, not unlike those 10,000 hours that I practiced my trumpet, it a matter of sticking with it until you get better and better at creating your own destiny, designing your own future.  Because as Leland Kaiser has said over and over again, “The Future is a Design Function.”

Dr. Denis Waitley, a positive mental attitude psychologist for the U.S. Olympic team, often speaks of positive self talk, but more importantly, he speaks of taking positive action. If  you don’t like what is happening, work to change it, but first you need to dig deep down inside yourself and determine if it is because you are truly offended by what is happening or if it is just change itself that you resent or fear.  Positive energy is not a “Jacobs in Wonderland” phenomena.  Rather, it is the movement that brings good things to life.

So, embrace healthcare reform as you try to figure it out.  Embrace nuclear arms reduction.  Embrace the fact that you are stranded in Europe because of a volcanic cloud.  It’s all good, or at least we can make it all good.  As long as we have life, love, and a will to succeed, it’s all good.  And, Peggy, the answer is, “No, that’s not all there is.”

There is nothing more fulfilling than living a purpose driven life, than contributing to the betterment of mankind in some meaningful way.   As I work with the International Brain Research Foundation to help them find support to bring traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients out from what were previously believed to be deep, irreversible comas: as I work with the fine people in breast cancer research to spread their work internationally; as I work in Patient Advocacy, and in finding resources for hospitals and physicians to enable them to provide even more superior care, I can tell you that “That’s not all there is.”   In fact, it’s just the beginning.

  • Share/Bookmark

No comments »

Posted in Healthcare, Leadership, inspiration

Tags:

So “Radical” Was the Correct Term?

April 8th, 2010
In 1987, my healthcare journey began in administration by asking the question, “Why are hospitals the way the are?“  It was a sincere inside/out question that had evolved from my having been a teacher, executive director of an arts organization, president of a convention and visitors bureau, and finally a PR/Marketing and Development professional in the world of healthcare.  By 1997, my ideas had been rejected so many times by so many traditional hospital administrators, who were either my bosses or my peers, that it felt like they would never come to fruition in a conservative field where change is sometimes seen as both life and job-threatening.
butterfly metamorphosis
In 1997, that all changed when Ernst and Young evaluated the hospital where my presidential appointment had just occurred and predicted the closure of that facility due to lack of population, lack of “financial depth” (a.k.a. cash), and a health system partner that successfully was eating our lunch each and every day. It was with that information in hand that I began the metamorphosis of this organization. The presentation to the board and medical staff was relatively simple:

“We can keep doing what we are doing, and then board the place up… or we can grow by changing  the way healthcare is delivered.”

No workplace bullying - Nick Jacobs - healtinghospitals.comLuckily for me, my board chairman at that time was a risk taker because, realistically, our backs were against the wall.  So, we began a journey of change.   We removed bullies from the workplace (both physicians and employees); created a homelike environment where you did not have to leave your dignity at the door;  added bread baking machines, popcorn machines in the lobby, decorative fountains, aroma therapy, massage, humor, music, and pet therapies.  We focused on Green, focused on Dignity for employees and patients; focused on providing a peaceful, loving, and Healing Environment; focused on Family Spaces; focused on Architecture; and focused on Quality of Care.  We began classes for our employees in Hospitality in Emotional Intelligence Quotient training and embraced ideas garnered from places like the Ritz Carlton, Disney, and Dale Carnegie.  Then we established an employee evaluation system that embraced these changes and rewarded our staff financially for their work.

Loved ones were encouraged to stay 24/7 as visiting hours were opened to them, double beds were placed in the OB suites, a wellness/prevention/and integrative health facility was built to embrace not only traditional therapies but to an entire gamut of alternatives.  A senior citizen center was condominiumized and made available to the Area Agency on Aging.  We had patients help us design a new Palliative Care Unit, Breast Care Center, and Fitness facility, then finally we added a world class International Research Institute.

That was 1997 through 2008.  It appears from the posting below that the world is beginning to consider some of these ideas, but lo, these many years later, they are still being referred to as “radical.”  Well, if any of you are interested in how to do what we did which tripled our organizational budget in size and doubled our workforce,  just give me a call at 412-992-6197, to participate in this program.

Obviously, Windber, Pennsylvania was where this movement all started.   Let’s make sure that it doesn’t stop.  After all, it’s not what people like.  It’s what people LOVE.

Henry Ford Health System - Nick Jacobs, FACHE - HealingHospitals.com

Henry Ford Health System Goes Radical: Creating the Hospital of the Future

DETROIT – Looking to shake up your industry, transform your medical center, and recharge your organization?

A two-day educational symposium, “Going Radical: Creating the Hospital of the Future,” may hold the key to revitalization. It will be held May 25 – 27.

Henry Ford Health System President and CEO Nancy Schlichting will share her radical, but practical strategies for success at the symposium, tapping into the wisdom of her top executives in an interactive session on the profound lessons learned during their tenure.

It was Schlichting’s brainstorm to hire a CEO for Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital from outside the healthcare industry. Her choice was Gerard van Grinsven, a former executive of the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain, and an expert in service excellence.

Henry Ford West Bloomfield staff will discuss its successes in differentiating itself from the competition by:

• Constructing prototype rooms for planning and community input.

• Incorporating green features in the architecture and construction.

• Building all private patient rooms, including in the emergency department.

• Emphasizing wellness and healthy living.

• Combining traditional clinical care with complementary therapies.

• Creating a unique brand and inspiring staff to think differently.

• Including family space in each patient room, including intensive care.

• Implementing a new kind of food culture in health care.

• Putting a focus on the special concerns of the elderly.

Entrepreneur Bill Taylor, co-author of Mavericks at Work and co-founder of Fast Company magazine, will be the keynote speaker. His ideas have helped shape the global conversation about how business works and “why the most original minds in business win”. His next book, Practically Radical, to be published this fall, explores how to unleash big change in difficult times.

During break-out sessions Henry Ford staff will share lessons learned while juggling the building of the $360-million West Bloomfield hospital and the $300 million renovation of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Tours of Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital will include a visit to the Emergency Department, wellness center, and an inpatient room. At Henry Ford Hospital, participants will tour the Center for Simulation, Education and Research – one of the largest facilities of its kind in the Midwest that provides hands-on training with medical mannequins.

Symposium sessions include:

• Creating a Culture of High Performance
• Facility Innovations Through the Eyes of the Patient
• The Best of Both Worlds: Clinical Excellence Meets Integrative Medicine
• Transforming Hospital Food
• Radical Outreach: Relationship Building to Win Over the Community and Recruit Staff
• Thriving in Detroit: A Blueprint for Transforming Your Hospital System and The Physician Perspective

each and every day.  It was with that information in hand that I began the metamorphasis of this organization.  The presentation to the board and medical staff was relatively simple, “We can keep doing what we are doing, and then board the place up, or we can change the way healthcare is delivered and grow.”
  • Share/Bookmark

No comments »

Posted in Healthcare, Hospitals, Leadership

Tags:

Quote on John Murtha’s Funeral Program

February 17th, 2010

“It’s not the critic who counts. It’s not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or whether the doer of the deed could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by the dust, sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs to comes short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming.

It is the man who actually does strive to do the deeds, who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spent himself in a worthy cause who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and cruel souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

—Theodore Roosevelt (26th president of the United States)

Teddy Roosevelt

  • Share/Bookmark

2 comments »

Posted in Leadership

Tags:

Congressman John P. Murtha

February 9th, 2010

Yesterday’s phone call from the Somerset Daily American caught me off guard.  ”Hi, Nick, have you heard?  Congressman Murtha passed away this afternoon.  Could you give us a quote?”  the reporter said.   Truthfully, I was not ready for this call.  Having talked to friends who had been with him only a week earlier, everything seemed like it was going to be okay, but obviously, okay was not what it was.  He had one of the 500,000 or so laparoscopic cholesystectomies performed each year to remove a gallbladder.  This surgery has a .05% complication rate, but the call proved that, regardless of the percentages, there is always risk from human involvement.

The Late Rep. John Murtha I’ve decided to dedicate this as a very personal look back at my journey with Jack Murtha.  Ironically, we had grown up practically as Pennsylvania neighbors in Westmoreland/Fayette Counties.  My first real meeting with Mr. Murtha was during the 1977 Johnstown Flood.  I was a young teacher and volunteer who was mopping the floors of the relief centers,  getting things ready for survivors who had lost their homes when I heard a helicopter come flying in and saw a tall, impressive, 44 year old Congressman deplane.  He had only been in Congress for a few years, but had clearly learned enough about the  System to keep then-President Carter on his toes and get legislation passed to help his home district.

My very next encounter with Mr. Murtha wasn’t until about three years later, when his Washington office called me to see if they could help my employer at that time, Laurel Arts of Somerset, with a bill that was going through the House before Ronald Reagan took office.  Nothing came out of that call except for the fact that I realized that his employees were parents of former students and people who liked and respected my work from those days.

Then the big encounter hit.  Mr. Murtha was looking into bringing the National Park Service into Cambria County to start what became the America’s Industrial Heritage (Tourism Development) Project.  He and several other Congressmen came to the University of Pittsburgh in Johnstown to hold a Congressional hearing on the project, and, as the newly-elected President of the Laurel Highlands Convention and Visitors Bureau, I testified against the plan and explained that if they didn’t include Westmoreland, Somerset, and Fayette Counties, we would not display any literature promoting it at all of the tourist sites that we controlled.  They agreed, and not many months later, he ended up representing Fayette County as part of his district.   It worked out for both of us.

A few years later, I had transitioned into healthcare senior leadership and  invited Mr. Murtha to introduce Bob Hope at a fund raising event for the Mercy Hospital of Johnstown.  Approximately 6,000 people were in attendance and Mr. Murtha got as much applause as Mr. Hope.  The following year he helped us bring in Henry Mancini and his orchestra for a similar event and our respect for each other began to grow.

Rep. Murtha speaking at Biotechnology expo (2004)

Rep. John P. Murtha speaking at Biotechnology Expo (2004)

In 1997, when I became the President of Windber Medical Center, Mr. Murtha and I were seated near each other at a dinner party.  It was there that we  began to discuss healthcare, and his vision for the future.  Anything that would help the soldiers stay well, prevent illness, or stop it before it became an issue was his goal.  I heard him speak at the opening of one of his many health center initiatives at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and he said, “I have 13 honorary degrees, hundreds of awards, and am well known as for my work in defense, but I want my legacy to be healthcare, prevention, and wellness.

His contributions to healthcare, however  small they may seem compared to what he has done for the world and for mankind, through his tireless and dedicated work were where his heart was.  His strength and vision made him the most impressive human being that I have ever known, and my love and respect for both him and his wife, Joyce, cannot be calculated in mere human measurements.  I am proud of him, his work, and his commitment, and I know that the seeds that he has planted in Breast Cancer Research will go on to save thousands of lives someday.

Ironically, it was healthcare that took his life.  No one can ever replace Jack Mutha; his knowledge of the system, his guts and determination, his singular efforts to help a district that had been devastated by natural disaster, his kindness and great personality.  No one.  So, today, I write with great sadness that our great friend is gone, but at the same time, I vow that his name, his contributions to humanity, and his memory will never be gone.

Look at wriwindber.org or windbercare.com, and see what Jack Murtha built.  We loved you, Jack.

  • Share/Bookmark

No comments »

Posted in Leadership, Public Health, Public Policy

Tags:

Healing Hospitals and Healing People

January 18th, 2010

The origin of the name of this blog, HealingHospitals.com came from decades of seeking a better way to transition an old model to a more meaningful, experiential approach to caring for people.  This would actually provide transformational experiences for the patients and their families in a more interactive and participatory way.  (HealingHospitals was named a top 50 hospital administration blog.)

In a recent conversation with a clinical psychologist, I learned that we generally become our habits or, in fact, our habits become us. Accordingly, to change, to grow, to transition and to flourish, we have to work very hard at changing those habits that are not benefiting us personally: over indulgence, negativity, low self-esteem, or whatever the issue(s) may be.

How does this apply to an organization?  Every organization that I have ever experienced has a distinct personality and, in its own way, habits, as well.  Sometimes the personality of the organization is imposed by its leaders, but usually there are layers and layers of practice that have become part of the culture of that organization; practices –for better or worse– that have accumulated over time.

My observations of numerous hospitals have also provided me with an understanding of the myriad of habits that no longer make sense in today’s world; habits still being embraced that literally produce negative results, and are not only insensitive to the needs of both the staff and the patients, but also are many times intellectually and emotionally caustic to all participants.  We’ve written several times about the disparaging nature of the “parent-to-child” management styles prevailing in many hospitals amongst staff, physicians, and administrators, but this is just the proverbial tip of this particular iceberg.

Senior woman patient in hospital hallwayMany hospitals are wonderful examples of business models that flourished during the Industrial Revolution.  Employees still swipe time cards into time clocks, bells and pagers go off all day and all night; professionals poke and prod patients without any explanation.  How many times have you observed the 84-year-old being wheeled into a cold, uncarpeted hallway, parked near a wall with nothing to see, nothing to do, and no one to talk to for long stretches of time while waiting for tests about which he or she knows very little?

In many hospitals patients are referred to by staff members by their  body parts: the kidney in 101, the heart in 543, the stroke in 300.  It is also common that the procedures administered are at the total convenience of the staff and docs without much consideration for the patient.  Numerous hospitals still ask loved ones to leave promptly at 8:00 PM each night, and many times bad news is delivered via the phone.

Consequently, the blog name, HealingHospitals.com which may seem almost like an oxymoron, is intended to help us all to create environments for healing. For the most part, we can probably agree that it would be great if hospitals were places where you could go to begin that healing process.  We might even agree that it would be wonderful if we could be nurtured there, to be helped to find the road to recovery through healing, and even more dramatically, to have a transformational experience that would help us break or modify those habits that keep bringing us back.

It would also be fantastic if, at the end of life, our loved ones could be admitted to control pain, or if the family could have respite.  More importantly, it would be amazing if relationships could be healed before the transition to the other side.

In the late eighties, when I entered healthcare administration, it was my passion to make hospitals more like hotels and spas. But, most importantly, it was all about making the hospitals healing places where patients would have a chance to change their lives in a meaningful way; mentally, physically, and spiritually, via a transformational center of caring.  Let me certify that we did just that, and it is going on to this day. The point is that “you can, too.”

Healing Hospitals: Doctor on hillside with laptop

  • Share/Bookmark

No comments »

Posted in Healthcare, Hospitals, Leadership

Tags:

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

December 3rd, 2009

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Cosmos – Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

healing_mural420

Over the last several years, we have made extraordinary claims in our blogs, our speeches, and our consulting.  We have made claims that have been questioned, sometimes scoffed at, and generally ignored by the masses who believe that their way is the only way.  It is almost as if these claims are so seemingly “out there,” that many believe they could not possibly be true.

  • less than 1% infection rates
  • lowest restraint rates
  • lowest re-admission rates
  • lowest mortality rates
  • 99% patient approval rates
  • 97% employee approval rates

In hindsight,  should we have just kept these claims “under the basket” because too many believe they look too good to be true?

When we claimed a bottom line that was over $2.5 M in a hospital with fewer beds than an average wing of most hospitals, you could see the frowns of disbelief on the faces of financial officers.  When we claimed those approval rates, the CEO’s of other hospitals simply smiled and probably thought to themselves, “…maybe in your little hospital, but NEVER in mine.”

eldercare_nurse5_445

Now that I am no longer affiliated with my previous employer, let me throw down the gauntlet to you.  It is my complete and sincere belief that these results, with your total support and endorsement, can happen in your facilities. It is my further belief that I can help deliver those results for you, so that instead of laying people off, you too can double or triple in size. I believe that you can take your everyday challenges and turn them into unbelievable successes.  How?  Take the pages from my book on hospital management.  (The one that’s not published yet, but firmly planted in my heart and head.) In the interim, get yourself a copy of my first healthcare book that has been published, Taking the Hell Out of Healthcare.

  • If you are a genuinely kind person, that will show through in your management style.  Kindness is not weakness.
  • If you care about your staff, they will care about not only you but also about your patients.
  • If you treat people with dignity at all levels of the organization, your organizational culture can change.
  • If you help the 10 percent or so of your employees, physicians, and others who do not support this philosophy to find work at neighboring institutions, they will be the gift that keeps on giving as they run rampant over patients at those hospitals and drive those patients to your doors.

These are not difficult assignments.  They require only that you stick to your resolve, that you always try to do what is right, and that you do not stop until all of the necessary changes have been made.  Healing organizations start with YOU.  Healing organizations embrace their human resources.  They embrace patient families.  They DO NOT function like cold, corporate America.  They function like patient-centered America.  Kindness in the workplace is not a gimmick, not a fleeting idea, not a once or twice a year thing, it is a complete commitment to a change in culture that reaches out to patients, employees, and medical staff.

doctor_welcome220The cost?  In the big picture, the cost is not even a consideration. Your investment now is less  than you can imagine, as your facilities grow, expand, and thrive. Besides:

What does it cost to be nice?

What does it cost to be civil?

What does it cost to be kind?

Healing Hospitals are a way of life.  Make sure that your hospital becomes just that, a place for healing.

  • Share/Bookmark

1 comment »

Posted in Healthcare, Hospitals, Leadership

Tags:

Thanksgiving and CHANGE…

November 21st, 2009

One of the sometimes-challenging realities of Thanksgiving is that it forces us to look into the microscope of our personal time here on earth and acknowledge the change that will always be a part of our humanity.  This week I received a phone call that should never have been necessary “in my lifetime.”  One of my former employees passed away. For those of you who have some knowledge of my past, you might scratch your head in confusion regarding my deep consternation and pain from the loss of one person, because there were literally thousands of employees with whom I have worked over the years. But, for the others of you who know me well, you will clearly understand.

When I became the president of my former hospital, the waves of change had touched on it shores only briefly as it had attempted to avoid being consumed by neighboring health systems.  Because of this challenge of competition, we were given the authority to “try some new things” to attempt to preserve the facility as a community hospital.  To say that the road ahead was laced with hazards would be a serious understatement, but we did  navigate those sometimes treacherous waters successfully.

Carolyn "Winnie" Horner (1961-2009)As my tenure began in this difficult environment, a few people stepped forward who “got it.”  Winnie Horner was one of those people.  She “got it” from our first presentation about our dreams and plans.  Winnie was literally one of a handful of people who was willing to put herself out there to help the hospital establish new dreams, new ideals, new goals, and new caring philosophies.

Because a concept seems easier to embrace if it can be identified with others, we became a Planetree Hospital, the third in the United States and the first in Pennsylvania.  It was our goal to become a Healing Hospital.  It helped to jump start us into a new world of compassionate, healing, loving care that literally gave new life to the organization and helped it to remain not only open but also to succeed in ways that could never have been imagined.

Winnie not only “got on board,” for a long time she became the engineer of that train.  Her passion, her kind ways, her belief in spirituality, her amazing  voice, and her commitment to change was always obvious and appreciated.  She was a leader, a champion, the Joan of Arc of this effort, and I loved her for this.

Unfortunately, she will not get to read this because, at 48 years of age, she died this week.  Unbeknownst to her, she had been working with pneumonia, but, like Winnie always did, she kept giving of herself.  Who would have ever thought that it would have had this ending, and her three beautiful children are now without their mom this Thanksgiving.

So today, I write to you, Winnie.  You were a very important part of the soul of Windber Medical Center, and your presence will always be felt, but your absence will be felt even more deeply.

For me, Thanksgiving has always been a time of change, starting at a very young age as grandparents, uncles, aunts, and parents passed on.  The empty chairs at the table were always indicative of our own mortality, and the loss of those we love, be it permanent or just because of the sometimes-messy circumstances that are a part of living,  is a reality that we all must deal with throughout our time here on Earth.

thanksgiving_table_white

It’s ironic that, as commercial as our country has become, the tradition of Thanksgiving has remained virtually untouched in the essence of its meaning.  If you are alone for Thanksgiving, or with a cast of dozens, take a moment to reflect upon your life and your gifts.  Understand that nothing is permanent, and that, like Winnie Horner, we all have a chance to make a difference in thousands of lives, a positive, forever difference.

This year, Winnie and her passionate partners were able to achieve something that has only happened a handful of times in the world.  Through their work, Windber became a Planetree Designated Hospital, a model of care in the Planetree philosophy, my final Windber dream.  Thank you, Winnie, and if any of you don’t believe that you can make a difference, a real difference, take a page out of “Winnie’s Book.”  She was one of the best.

Planetree banner

  • Share/Bookmark

2 comments »

Posted in Healthcare, Hospital, Leadership

Tags: