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Hospital Impact has been ranked one of the top 50 healthcare blogs by Wikio.
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by Nick Jacobs
It's Christmas Eve and, without being sentimental, it would be an understatement for me to tell you that I'm filled with confidence about everything that I'm facing in my next transition. After 21 years in hospital administration, it was my personal decision to move on to whatever life has in store for me. This is a jump-without-a-net scenario based on the belief that we are all connected in some wonderful way throughout this universe.
Some of you might ask, "Why would anyone leave a solid, meaningful, well paying job at a time like this?" Obviously, when the decision was made, it was not exactly a "time like this," but, if you track my life, it seems that the only thing that has remained consistent throughout has been my ventures into the unknown, into Whitewater. I'm sure that Christopher Columbus and I have the same astrological sign.
Looking back, it was, in many ways a very difficult ride. Truthfully, whoever told me that the wind blows the hardest at the top of the pole was absolutely accurate. Even as my tenure as a CEO counts down to days, hours, and minutes, the words spoken by a friend that "Life is not like college. Life is like high school," have probably been the most accurate.
Not unlike my 10 years as a public school music teacher, it is impossible to describe the positive emotions that have been part of this job. Thirty years later, former students still send me wonderful letters thanking me for helping them make their way through life, and a day doesn't go by in this job where people haven't thanked me for helping them work their way through a complicated and sometimes frightening system. If it all had to be summed up in one phrase, it seems to me that Angelina has it down. "Living a purpose driven life" is a wonderful thing.
I'm sure that the winds of fate will not stop blowing my way, but it is not without some degree of trepidation that I touch my heart and say a little prayer that this next chapter will not leave me feeling as if my purpose was left behind. It is my goal, my dream, and my desire that the lessons learned over a lifetime of giving in education and public administration can be passed on to those of you who are feeling your way through the morass. Don't forget me. I'm here to help. Oh, and have a wonderful holiday season.
by Christopher Cornue
Nick Jacobs recently wrote about what he will miss as a hospital CEO and, like most of you, I enjoyed reading about his final thoughts as he leaves his current role.
At the same time Nick is leaving his CEO role, I've had the opportunity, as some of you may know, to start a role as CEO. In September 2008, I started as the CEO of a hospital in Colorado. Now, I've read up on the "First 100 Days" literature, planned an approach to those first few days, and worked to identify what my leadership will look like. Still, while all of this has been done with the best intentions, no amount of preparation can adequately prepare one completely for assuming a CEO role.
by Nick Jacobs
Paul Levy's post regarding unnecessary deaths is something about which I am also passionate. While it may not currently be mainstream, I believe it is enormously effective.
Some of you might say that our theory is Pollyanna in nature, but there is quantifiable information that definitively demonstrates its effectiveness. And I believe that by embracing a philosophy that creates an optimal healing environment, many workplace "never" incidents will ultimately be resolved.
by Dr. Kenneth H. Cohn
As a patient who is also a doctor, I, of all people, should understand the concept of patient-centered care. Still, of late I have done several things wrong in making sure I was treated, and should have known better:
• I worked all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday on-call as an attending general surgeon in a rural Vermont hospital and did not get what the Institute of Medicine recommends for residents for breaks after being on call for a day (more on differing standards for resident vs. attending surgeons in a future post).
• I went into the hospital at 5:30 a.m. Monday to admit a patient with acute cholecystitis.
• I evidently used suboptimal body mechanics loading my suitcase into the car as I hurried on a windy, 7-degree day.
• I drove 140 miles back to a suburb of Boston, where I live when I am not traveling.
• Within 48 hours, I was unable to bend over to put on my pants or tie my shoes because of severe lower back spasm; it felt as though the muscles attached to my posterior superior iliac crest were on fire.
Picture and post contributed by Paul Levy
I just returned from Nashville, TN, where I was invited to appear in a panel discussion with hospital CEOs and board members on the topic, "The anatomy of serious high profile safety events--powerful stories from senior leadership," which was part of a broader session called "Never Events: The Clock is Ticking." I was honored to follow two terrific speakers (see photo above): Paul Wiles, left, CEO of Novant Health in Winston-Salem, NC; and Greg Kutcher, right, CEO of Immanuel St. Joseph's Hospital in Mankato, MN.
Wiles began with a heart-wrenching story about an infant's death from sepsis in his hospital, which was tracked to an MRSA infection. That infection was part of a spread of a bug in his neo-natal intensive care unit that led to the colonization of 18 infants in all, and may have contributed to the death of two others. "This was a direct result of staff not washing their hands appropriately," he said. Since that event, "we have been on a relentless hand hygiene campaign."
The crux of his, and the entire presentation hinged on this comment: "My objective today is to confess," Wiles said. "I am accountable for those unnecessary deaths in the NICU. It is my responsibility to establish a culture of safety. I had inadvertently relinquished those duties" by focusing instead on the traditional set of executive duties (financial, planning, and such).
by Nick Jacobs
As I look down the barrel of my last 17 working days as CEO at Windber Medical Center, three very important goals remain unfinished (but I am aggressively moving toward completing all three). The first is to achieve designation as a model patient-centered care Planetree hospital.
Read more!