Archive for the ‘Travel’ category

The Brownies

January 8th, 2012

San Diego Chargers - Nick Jacobs, FACHEFive years ago, I wrote an article about my visit to the Steelers/Chargers game in San Diego. It was a special birthday gift for my brother. The Jacobs boys were dressed in Bettis shirts and, even though the Steelers lost that game, the San Diego fans screamed at us the entire way to the bus and wanted to brawl with us. If you have ever seen the two of us, even without the Bettis jerseys, you’d realize that not only was this humorous; it was hilarious.

Well, an old friend called me on New Year’s Eve told me he had an extra ticket and asked if I’d like to go to the Browns/Steelers game with him. The good news is that this guy has good seats. The bad news is that he lives there and is a Browns fan. The trip to Cleveland wasn’t bad, roads were clear, sun was in and out, and it only took two and a half hours to get there. (Getting back was an entirely different story that begins with the words…Lake Effect.) There are no tunnels, lots of four lane highways, and because the Browns had lost eleven games, there was almost no traffic on the way into the stadium. My buddy and I met at a downtown bowling alley/restaurant, had a salad and headed for the stadium with over an hour to spare. He was in his Browns attire, and I had my .

As we got closer to the stadium entrance, we saw what could only be described as a gigantic human traffic jam. There were literally thousands of people jammed up outside the stadium, and no one was moving anywhere. This is when the fun began. Several police cars passed us with lights and sirens flashing and roaring, and left us Browns and Steelers fans literally stacked on top of each other as we tried to get into the game.

Terrible Towel - Pittsburgh - Nick JacobsAt first there were a few rough words from Cleveland fans. For example, the Pitt in Pittsburgh was replaced with a plural word that rhymes with Pitt and ends in burgh. Then things started to heat up a little with more shouting between both sides in this massive stationary mob scene. Because neither my friend nor I would be considered Ultimate Cage Fighters, we just moved silently ahead one tedious inch at a time, hoped and prayed for the best.

Halfway through the first quarter, we made it to the pat down gate and watched as couples were broken up and women were sent to the back of other lines that were female only. We found this to be a curious situation because normally there would be a bag search line and a no bag line, but it is not typically a male line and a female line. Then we noticed something really strange. They were making the non bag carrying women remove their hats and gloves. What the heck was that about? Had there been a tip that some female terrorist was smuggling plastic explosives under her hat or in her mittens?

I stood beside one Cleveland fan who told me that he had been coming to these games for 55 years and had never experienced anything as brainless as this. Bottom line, we arrived at our seats three quarters of the way through the first quarter. Our outside the gate wait was nearly 90 minutes and no one, not the guards, not the friskers, not the ticket takers, not the ushers, and not even the hot dog sales people seemed one bit concerned or remorseful. I’m not sure what the announcers were saying about all of the empty orange seats, but the place was probably sold out. We just weren’t able to get into the stadium.

As soon as we sat down the 50 mph winds, rain and snow hit hard, but we won!

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Look, Up In The Sky…

October 7th, 2011

I have to admit that the 12-credit, continuing education course I signed up for was not supposed to be fun. In fact, I fully expected it to be two full days of classroom work, in a room with no windows, followed by exactly zero recreation time. I knew it would include a working breakfast, working lunch and a couple of bathroom breaks. I’ve done this before in places like Hawaii, Fort Lauderdale, Cape Cod; you name it. And,  because of my work schedule, I usually fly in, take (or teach) the course, sleep in some no-nonsense business hotel, then head home the following day. What have I been thinking about for all of these years?

Vintage New Mexico Postcard - Nick Jacobs, FACHE - HealingHospitals.comWhen I arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Sunday and went to the rental car agency desk for my trip to Santa Fe, I should have guessed that something big was going on that week. The service representative told me that she could not rent me the compact car that I had ordered, but, in fact, had to rent me one of those black Secret Service type RV’s that hold eight people, a few rocket launchers and a small quad, but she’d cut me a break on the price. When I asked her about gas mileage, she put her head down and said something like, “Drill, Baby, drill.”  The helpful young lady informed me that the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival was taking place throughout the week, and there were virtually no rooms and very few rental cars available anywhere in the area.

Because I had run a visitors bureau in the 80’s, I had seen pictures of hundreds of hot air balloons floating over New Mexico and knew there was such an event, but didn’t realize it was, you know, this week.

My course was being offered by an organization called the American College of Healthcare Executives; the recipient of many thousands of my dollars over the last 25 years.  You see, they provide you with a credential that some hospital CEO’s have, and even when you’ve stopped running hospitals, it is important to keep paying them and taking courses in order to maintain the credential until at least six months after your death.

Albuquerque Baloon Festival - Humpty DumptyOne of the unusual things about this credential is that it is spelled FACHE.  My former assistant once asked me why I signed my name as Nick Jacobs, FACHE, but she pronounced it “fake.”  It actually means Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, but, really, her pronunciation was more fun…and a great conversation starter, too.

The rain started during my 5:00 AM trip to Santa Fe and continued for two days.  So, because the balloons always fly very early in the morning, I never saw even one of them, but on my way to the airport this morning in the shuttle, I overheard a man and his wife discussing “the cow.” He went on and on about how big “the cow” was. It never dawned on me that he was talking about a cow balloon.  Finally, when he said, “Those were the biggest set of udders I’d ever seen,” I had to interrupt and question this discussion.  At that point he explained to me that the basket was in front of the udders, but I still didn’t get it until he laughed and said, “Heck, man, it was a hot air balloon the size of the Astrodome.”  Hence, the title of this post.

I’m glad New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, isn’t wine country. Could you imagine finishing that 22nd sample of some great vintage, walking outside and seeing that colossal, airborne cow coming at you?

The course was great, the hotels were clean, and the people were nice, but missing that cow has me really upset.  I mean, how many chances do you have in your lifetime to see 600 hot air balloons flying overhead?  How many days in a lifetime provide a person with that type of visual opportunity?

It’s time to stop and smell some roses. From now on, I’m only going to go to courses that end at noon.

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Barcelona, VAT and Ambiance

August 18th, 2011

Last weekend, I traveled to Barcelona. How does one afford to spend a weekend in Barcelona in this economy with the dollar at $1.40 to one Euro, one might ask?  Points, my friends, points. When you travel enough, it’s possible to build up quite a few of these delightfully-useful but quickly-diminishing-in-value “perks,” and that’s how I got there.

Because it’s “Vacation time in Europe,” numerous hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions offer nice packages for a reasonable number of points, and because I’d never been to Barcelona or anywhere in Spain for that matter, it seemed like a good plan. Albeit brief, my 4 day journey into yet another culture was almost worth the pain of traveling. Of course, if you remember my Serbia, Nigeria, Bosnia, Netherlands and Italy blog posts, you know that I’m all about “experiences.”

Barcelona - juice seller - Flickr Photo

Barcelona: juice seller at the Mercat de la Bouqueria - Flickr photo credit: Halvorson Photo

The longer I live, the more interested I am in how other people live. Many years ago, probably 20 or so, we had an exchange student, Monica, from Barcelona who used to stand in my family room, look out the window into the rolling fields and proclaim, “Nick, Nick, I am sooo bored.”  Truthfully, I was, too.

So, why Barcelona, VAT and the “A” word? I fell in love with the city. I loved the ambiance, the food, the wines, the architecture, and the people. Maybe it was the fact that there are two million souls living there, and I never felt uneasy even once. Unlike my last trip to Chicago, where I couldn’t sleep all night because of the continuing chorus of sirens from emergency vehicles, Barcelona’s street in front of our hotel erupted in the wail of those distinctive, European sirens only
about four times, from Friday until the following Monday.

Interior of La Sagrada Familia basilicaSome of the little things that captured my attention included the walk/don’t walk sign on the streets that actually allowed you enough time to cross at your leisure without being hit by an oncoming car. The people and cab drivers were polite and, most importantly, there was a feeling of helpfulness and respect in the shops, restaurants and architectural wonders.

Of course, by Sunday evening, we had visited nearly every architectural work of Antoni Gaudí, and toured and listened to a great concert at the inspiring Palau Música Catalana. Barcelona is today one of the world’s leading tourist, economic and cultural and sports centres, and this all contributes to its status as one of the world’s leading cities.

But what about the rest of the title of this blog post? Every time we purchased something material there, the VAT tax was applied, and when I asked someone to explain it, the answer was simple, “It’s how we pay for healthcare.” Consequently, when we walked the streets over that entire weekend, we saw a total of five beggars, and three of them had a Starbucks Cup to catch the falling Euros.

The other things that we saw everywhere were dumpster-style recycling binsBarcelona: color-coded recyclying bins. And not just any bins, either. Very fancy, clean, able-to-be-picked-up-mechanically bins, that were specifically color coded for every imaginable kind of recyclables. Not rocket science, but a comment on community pride, sustainability or climate change, perhaps.

So, we’ve taken care of the creation of a pleasant ambiance on numerous levels with extraordinary architecture, beautiful tree-lined streets, recycling, healthcare, low crime and compassion for fellow human beings. We didn’t see many Mercedes, but we also didn’t see much evidence of poverty, either. The beaches in town were public, and not controlled by exclusive beachfront hotels. Barcelona’s public transportation was a pleasure — clean, comfortable and efficient, with a train to Paris that delivers you there in about three hours…and the Tapas, wine and customer service were all simply amazing.

Nationally, Spain’s unemployment rate hit 21.3%, and they are listed as one of the PIIGS:  Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain…i.e., economically-unsound EU countries. In spite of these huge challenges,  Barcelona was a great city, a great experience, and a great setting with world class arts. So, should we charter an Airbus 380, load up our U.S. Congress, and fly them to Barcelona?

Nah, it wouldn’t help.

Hmm. Maybe we should fly them to Somalia?

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A Speech to the Risk Managers at RM&PSI

August 27th, 2010

The RM&PSI is a national leader in clinical risk management practices and patient safety programs for health care institutions and providers.

RM&PSI, the Risk Management and Patient Safety Institute provided a forum for me to not only give a speech today on patient advocacy, but also to passionately press for its members to take up the cause of transparency, patient and patient family support, and healthcare quality.  Yes, the speech touched on Social Media tools as a means of reinforcing the message, but it was really all about patient adovcacy.  The RM&PSI is a national leader in clinical risk management practices and patient safety programs for health care institutions and providers.  It primarily focuses its efforts on clinical risk reduction strategies, quality patient outcomes and health care provider education.

Their conference was held in Traverse City, Michigan which functions as the major commercial area for a seven county area and is one of Northern Lower Michigan’s two anchor cities.  Tourism is a key industry and the area features freshwater beaches, vineyards, a National Lakeshore, downhill skiing areas, and numerous forests. But when you’re there to make a speech, it simply features nice people, a hotel room, and a conference room.  (So much for the sun, sand, golf and gambling.)

Nick Jacobs, FACHE - F. Nicholas Jacobs - Healing Hospitals - Sunstone Consulting

Nick Jacobs, FACHE

This opportunity was unusual for me because my typical speech-making effort includes a trip in, a speech, and a trip back out.  This time, however, they graciously invited me to attend both days of the two day event, and my eyes were opened even wider to the quality of the dedicated people who perform these “risk management” and quality assurance  jobs for our healthcare systems.  The people were absolutely delightful; warm, welcoming, open and honest, and it was a particular pleasure being the wrap-up speaker for the conference because I had been given the opportunity to listen to two days of presenters, to take notes, and literally to recraft my presentation to embrace the tenor and tone of their overall seminar.

The one thing that came out loud and clear for me is that our C’s (CEO’s, CFO’s, CMO’S, CNO’s, etc.) must carry the flag for our risk managers and quality assurance professionals. By being transparent; open, honest, caring and kind, we can make a real difference.  It is about taking care of our caregivers and taking care of managing the expectations of our patients and their families while supporting quality at all costs.

Thanks, RM&PSI for your invitation, your warm welcome and  your kind response to my work.  It is what I live my life to do.  It is what we need to be about.\

Free Resources from RM&PSI:

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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
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TGIF, This Week was a Journey

May 8th, 2009

So, here’s the story: I got to the airport my normal two hours early because I’m obsessed about being on time. Worked on my computer, grabbed a salad, got on the plane, talked to the flight attendant, buckled up, and just as we were pulling out of the gate, all of the power went off. We lost the air conditioning, and the flight attendant and I looked at each other and said, “That’s not good.”

As it turned out, the young pilot on this commuter jet forgot to turn on the auxiliary power and when the ground crew unplugged the plane, everything went down; all of the computers and the air conditioning. In fact, the entire plane was roasting, and it took the ground crew over an hour to restore the power. Seven people got off of the plane because they missed their connecting flights to places like Germany and Kuwait; one poor guy was AWOL

time_flies_for_web

We took off in plenty of time to make my flight to Pittsburgh, but when we landed in Dulles we had to sit at the gate for another 20 minutes for the absent ground crew. Then we waited twenty more minutes for the bus/room that takes you to the correct part of the terminal for the next flight. Of course, I missed my flight by about 30 minutes, walked about two more miles, stood in lines for another hour, finally got a ticket for the first flight out this morning. Then had to stand in another line to get a hotel room. Walked for another three or four miles through Dulles, got lost, stood in the rain for about 20 minutes, got to the Holiday Inn compliments of the airline, was placed in a handicapped, smoking room . . . (they must have recognized me), and slept for about three hours. I guess that makes me a real road warrior!

I’m back at the gate waiting for my flight and today’s excitement.

(Could this be a possible air travel alternative in our future?)

aeros_craft425

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