Posts Tagged ‘FACHE’

What the Heck is Going On?

September 21st, 2009

Over the years it has been my aspiration to try very hard to help you laugh, and, regardless of the depth of the topic, I’ve always looked to find humor somewhere in the message. For example, potty training, Smokey the Bear, flying DVD’s, even old dogs with no tricks.

Today, however, I am writing about an issue that may inflame some of you and prove to be very troubling to others.  It’s not my goal to do either.  I’d just like to bring into focus the crazy stuff that seems to be taking us over, a kind of Bird Brain Flu that doesn’t have a vaccine and that appears to be enveloping our nation.

You see, it is my humble opinion that we as a country have reached a new low point in dumbness.  The wild, inflammatory rhetoric, a/k/a crazy talk that’s being spouted every day, appears to be pushing the fringe players out from under their rocks and their basement fortresses.  This political flu is taking us to levels of foolishness  that are so low that even a Limbo expert couldn’t fit under the broom stick.

Tomtomorrow_GlennBeck_

Have you noticed how open public hatred and outright prejudice has become?  It’s like we’re living a rap song from Gran Torino. Each and every day we hear the ranting of media talking heads leading the charge to endorse this movement.  For those of you who have read my work over the past few years, you know that I personally am repulsed by bullies, by racists, and by those who believe they are superior to other human beings.

The new accusations and sick suggestions that are the current craze are veiled as protests regarding big government, health insurance reform, and a lack of confidence in the ship of state.  What they really seem to be, however, is fear and lack of tolerance for our President.  So what if you don’t like him?  There still have to be some limits and boundaries. Are there any more lines?

I’m telling you, the crazies are coming out from their caves.  Seriously, watch out for them.  Many of these radicals are great examples of why some animals eat their young.

Just last week on a trip to Washington D.C., I had to be evacuated from the Pittsburgh airport because a passenger was carrying a defused hand grenade in his suitcase.  What is the single thought that must be in the mind of any individual who believes that a weapon, even, as it turned out, an inert one, such as that grenade, would be okay to pack for your plane ride?  Let me guess.  That thought was “Duh?”

It seems that every time some poor innocent gets shot in this country, there was some fringe individual who believed that he was not only given permission to take their life, but that there was an overwhelming endorsement of his actions that would somehow vilify him from any prosecution, and reward him with glory.  Does that sound like the Jihadi 72 virgins thing to you?

Yes, we have freedom of speech.  Yes, we have the right to bear arms, but do we have the right to just be nuts in public?  Maybe instead of statins in the water system to control cholesterol, or fluoride to prevent tooth decay, we should start putting Zoloft or some other  selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in that keep the brain from becoming unbalanced.

kids_group

What’s wrong with love, kindness, and the golden rule, of doing to your neighbor as you would have them do unto you? Can’t we look for compromise without demonizing those with opposite views?

Can’t we stop endorsing or even worse stop inflaming those with extreme views?  When is enough enough?  When will we return to civility, to compromise, and to brotherhood?  Would you rather have peace, love, and rock ‘n roll, or “Go ahead. Make my day, @#%&+^@#”?

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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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Make Sure That You are on the Right Side of the Paradigm Shift

January 15th, 2009

The word paradigm provides a cerebral representation of a model that, throughout our lives has remained relatively constant. Transformational changes in the manner in which we travel, how we communicate, and even in the ways that we are educated have simultaneously produced significant shifts in those models as well. In the early 90′s, we were informed that the information being transferred to us would only be viable and, in fact, would be very nearly invalid within about 18 months or so after ingestion.

Those parameters of informational decay continue to diminish exponentially as we immerse ourselves in 24-hour instant access to changing data, innovative discoveries, and altering states of acceptance of ideologies that were once believed to be infinite in their substance. Science is only valid until the next discovery.

The archetypical model of high-tech health care that was believed to be our “Star Trek” salvation from the ills of our parents, and their parents is currently being exposed as an artificial promise that has failed to deliver healing. Each decade our technologists have produced new; more sophisticated, and higher priced equipment with promises of earlier detection. Unfortunately cures have not been part of the equation. The additional technology has simply produced additional questions.

As we delve into the diva world of science, we find many reasons why significant progress has not been made, mostly related to a lack of continuity in the incentive systems. But, because of these failures to heal, we also may now be able to discern another reality that will truly contribute to the new world order of medicine.

Dr. Lee Hood, M.D., Ph.D

Lee Hood, M.D., Ph.D

Dr. Lee Hood, infamous for his work in the creation of the equipment used by our present day scientists, launched a school of thought that has been generally accepted in the scientific community, Systems Biology. Dr. Wayne Jonas has pursued with passion his work in Systems Wellness. Both of these edge-running thinkers are also working to contribute to a medical degree at a leading university that will be entitled Systems Medicine.

The uniqueness of this type of thinking is not the newness of it. It is, in fact, a melding of the old and the new, the oldest and the newest approaches to healing. What Drs. Hood and Jonas separately yet collectively are advocating is an approach to illness that embraces the complexities of genomics and proteomics and allows that knowledge to be firmly wrapped in a swaddling of information that, in many cases, has been with us since indigenous man walked the earth, an Optimal Healing Environment.

Wayne B. Jonas, M.D.

Wayne B. Jonas, M.D.

We have all been inundated by the mythical promise of cures from fraudulent presenters, and the result of those untested, unproven, and unfounded promises has created a culture of distrust, cynicism, and fear that thwarts the reemergence of those healing practices that represented not only viable alternatives, but, in many cases, the only alternatives that were available to our societies less than eighty years ago. As we more clearly understand that the human body is a comprehensive system that interacts within itself on a myriad of levels, we also can begin to understand why individual responses to certain types of healing modalities also produce very different results, i.e., Systems Healing.

The philosophies, beliefs, and practices of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, a major group of practitioners who have come together to provide not only education, training, and additional resources to physicians in general, have also come together to ensure that those Systems Healing practices that were pushed aside for the promise of high tech and high chemistry are reintroduced to medicine and healing in an appropriate and informed manners. Their work is not new to mankind, to medicine, or to healing, but it is a reemergence of those long proven, highly embraced modalities that promote and support health and wellness, the new paradigm?

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A Note From Nick Jacobs

October 24th, 2008

A Note from Nick Jacobs

On October 23, it was my honor and privilege to speak at the PATIENT-CENTERED CARE CEO CONFERENCE in Chicago with some very impressive CEO’s and Leaders. My topic was “Linking a Patient-Centered Approach to Quality Improvement and HCAHPS,” but my deeper theme was “Leadership with a Heart – Developing Love and Respect in the Workplace by Nurturing Staff, Physicians, and Patients.” For those of you who were able to attend, thank you for your kind words of encouragement and support.

As was explained during my introduction, I have made the very difficult decision to leave Windber Medical Center, but I leave with a commitment to spread the word both nationally and internationally about the journey to Patient Centered Care and how to achieve it.

Obviously, it is a risky time to attempt to begin this endeavor, but, because no time is ever completely safe, it was my decision to reach out to my peers and friends to offer my commitment to work with you with that same passion to help you achieve your goals regarding this effort.

Because Sunstone Consulting is an organization that has specialized in finding additional financial support for hospitals, we can bring you not only the formula for Patient Centered Care, but also the needed additional financial support to achieve your goals in this area.

Although I will not officially complete my assignment at WMC until December 31st of this year, my current schedule permits me two days per week to begin to develop new relationships with my friends and peers. Should you have interest in contacting us for a visit to Windber, or if you would just like to make inquiry regarding engaging us for work at your facility, please feel free to either respond to this letter by E-mail or to call me at the following contact address below.

Once again, thank you for the privilege of working with you on such a significant topic.

Warmest Regards,

Nick Jacobs

Nick Jacobs FACHE - Author of Taking the Hell Out of Healthcare

Nick Jacobs

F. Nicholas Jacobs, FACHE
International Director
SunStone Consulting, LLC
1411 Grandview Avenue Apt. 803
Pittsburgh, PA 15211
nickjacobs@sunstoneconsulting.com
jacobsfn@aol.com
Mobile: 412-992-6197
Fax: 866-381-0219

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