Archive for December, 2010

Warm Memories During The Holidays

December 19th, 2010

On those snow-covered roads of the 50’s and 60’s, the drive to my grandparents was always unforgettable. It seemed that the roads were hardly ever plowed, and there was no salt – just those coal black ashes mixed with tiny pieces of metal that would puncture a tire at least once or twice each winter.  The trip to their house really was over the river and through the woods, as we crossed the old wooden plank bridge, and started up the back roads to the park, where they lived.

Dad was not shy about winter driving on snow drift covered roads. As we slid and crashed through the white stuff on those old, back country roads at breakneck speeds, he would laugh as if nature was just something with which to play. Rear wheel drive in those clunky old 50’s cars was just crazy fun, as the Buick turned into a high tech, machine powered sleigh.  We would drive into total isolation where no unchained car had gone before us and thrill at making those first tire tracks in that freshly fallen snow. Mom would always be yelling, “Be careful, Charlie, don’t go too fast,” but he just laughed that baritone laugh as he put the pedal to the metal.

Winter, mid-1950s - Nick Jacobs, FACHE

After our snow driving fun, we would have our snow playing fun as we romped and rolled in the snow in our grandparents’ yard. That could go on for hours or until our blue jeans were completely frozen. Then we walked like icicles toward the heat of grandma’s kitchen. We were so cold that even our long underwear was frozen. In fact, we looked like cold, hard kid-cicles.  Once inside we would peel off layer after layer of wool and cotton until we were down to our frozen long  johns.

Our grandparents’ house was a place where we were surrounded with more fun, love and craziness than a kid could ever imagine. Oh, and food?  There were pots and pans bubbling and jumping on every burner of her old gas fired stove; spaghetti, meat sauce, home grown vegetables, cookies, and every type of Italian fruit or vegetable. In the middle of the table there was always a bowl filled with black gold, those wonderful fat, black olives that became candy to me. When the spaghetti was finally put on the table it was in a serving dish that reminded me of a soup bowl for Jack and the Beanstalk’s Giant. It could have been a bassinet for triplets. There had to have been at least two or three pounds of specially cooked pasta just waiting to become part of our collective muffin tops!

After we said grace (during which Grandma could be heard mumbling in Italian under her breath), Granddad would pass the wine around the room to all of the adult males at the table.  His philosophy as he poured his homemade wine from the gallon jug was that warmth, laughter, love and fun came from the fruit of the vine.  Throughout the entire meal, they would drink and laugh and sing to the tune of those carefully-cultivated grapes.  I loved the lighthearted, happiness of those meals. We never talked about anything serious and if anyone tried to bring up a serious category, granddad would do something just plain crazy like dump his peaches into his coffee cup, and my Grandmother would begin her ritual, a ritual that she surely seemed to enjoy as she scolded him by yelling out, “Patsy, Patsy, you gonna make-a da boys be bad!”  He would smile with that knowing smile that seemed to say, “Oh, they’ll be bad, alright, but not because of tonight. It will be because they have my genes!”

We loved the hugs, the love and the laughter. We always left there feeling that total nonjudgmental, complete love that only a grandparent can give.

It was all about that love.

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Wikileaks and Transparency

December 9th, 2010

LONDON (Dec. 8th) —Held without bail in Wandsworth prison, Julian Assange has been deprived of his trusty laptop, so the WikiLeaks founder can’t supply an inside scoop on life behind bars. But if the pro-transparency campaigner could leak just one word about conditions in Britain’s biggest jail, he would probably settle for “cramped.”   (via AOL NEWS)

Wikileaks' Julian Assange at TED - Nick Jacobs, FACHE

At my last CEO position, there were about 650 employees on the hospital side and another 50 at the research institute, but in the position that I held as the Chief Communications officer immediately before that,  there were over 4,500 employees.  Any one of those employees could  potentially have become PFC Bradley Manning.  Manning is the young man being accused of leaking millions of pieces of information to Assange’s Wikileaks. Every disgruntled, well-intentioned and sometimes naive employee who either had an “axe to grind” or who simply embraced a philosophy of openness would have potentially presented a major problem to any organization that was built around secrecy at all costs.

In my 20+ years as a hospital administrator, there were hundreds no, thousands of incidents that could have been “leaked” to family, friends and the media regarding incidents that may or may not have been problematic.  My memory goes immediately to an online discussion forum where the death of Congressman John P. Murtha was being dissected by a group of Bethesda Residents;  specifically, young U.S. Navy physicians who were venting and expressing their fears regarding their “being held responsible for the death of this powerful Congressman.”  The amazing thing to me was the it was a running dialogue that was, yes, online. The discussion topic thread was etitled Did we kill Congressman Murtha? The anonymous user names went through case-by-case analysis of other undeserving patients who did not emerge with their lives from surgeries at the hospital over the previous weeks and months.  These were individuals who, according to their estimations, should have. Imagine my shock when I came upon the casual page which, at minimum represented a potential HIPAA violation.

Well, it’s all about transparency, my friends, and this movement is only the beginning.  Unlike Kevorkian’s efforts which were almost single-handed, this is a movement, a viral, well-funded, philosophical movement that feels like “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” And it’s “coming to a theater near you.”   Not unlike the content of the sensitive documents that have been appearing online recently where peoples’ lives are at stake,  hospitals and physician offices face many of the same realities every day.  How many people, like PFC Manning, may not be truly insane or wish to destroy the government, but simply believe that their assistance in exposing the truth will “set us free?

Transparent Butterfly - Nick Jacobs, FACHE - Healing HospitalsAs business leaders not many decades ago, we were urged to treat every e-mail and every comment as if it was being reported by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes.  Of course, not many of us did, nor could we stick to that difficult rule of communicating, but think of the potential ramifications if Mr. Wallace had been as potentially ever-present as Mr. Assange.

What is my formula for success?  It’s always been the same.  Be as transparent as you can possibly be. Seems simple, but try it sometime. Don’t break the law. Don’t give out information that is inappropriate as in personally destructive regarding individuals, but be as open about your operation as you can possibly be.  Encourage an environment of openness when it comes to issues, mistakes, etc. and the frustration levels will go down, down, down…sometimes to the point of having employees telling you, “I wish I didn’t know so much.  Life was easier when I was in the dark.”  That’s when you’ll know you are beginning to provide a truly transparent business environment.

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