by Nick Jacobs

Once, while seated beside my board chair at a very elite meeting set up for only 15 board leaders and their guests from across the nation, Dr. Leland Kaiser looked out across the group and said, “Give me a creative CEO over a traditional CEO any day of the week.”

Dr. Kaiser went on to say (and I paraphrase as my memory serves me) that “If you don’t already have genomic testing in your hospital, you are already behind.” “If you aren’t looking at advanced imaging, electronic records and patient centered care, integrative health and behavior modification practices, you need to examine your leadership.”

My chairman looked at me and smiled. We were knee deep in all of these things six years ago.

We started participating six years ago in an insurance reimbursed program with Highmark Blue Cross on a wellness program that replaced heart surgery and angioplasty with a natural approach to healing, the Dean Ornish Coronary Artery Disease Program.

Yoga, stress management, no trans fats, massage, a work out facility for our employees, personal trainers, aroma, music and pet therapy but most of all, candor and respect are keys to our performance. If we can be sensitive to each other’s needs and treat patients as if they are our loved one, health care and health can change.

Innovation is indeed the key to survival. We have just completed our greatest financial year in the past 101 years, not because our facility is the biggest, not because it has the most tertiary care, or helicopters, or complex bureaucracy but because we treat our employees and patients with dignity and respect and because we embrace innovation.

To those who are waiting for the first two thousands hospitals to take the jump before they do, it's almost time. We boomers are getting impatient for the care we know you're capable of delivering.