With Sincere Gratitude

Today, is the last day that Kim Leonard and Kathy Burkey are board members of the Western Maryland Health System.  

Kim has been a board member since the creation of the Western Maryland Health System in 1996.  In fact, Kim served as the organization's first board chair and was able to maneuver the System through an extremely tumultuous few years.  With both personal and professional threats and losses, Kim's leadership through this nightmarish period was focused and inclusive.  He put himself out there and confronted challenge after challenge.  He was a rock and I will be forever grateful that he saw us through what was certainly the right thing to do and allowed WMHS to both flourish and prosper to the great benefit of our community.

Kathy Burkey joined the board shortly after the System was created and served as our second board chair for over 10 years.  Kathy and I worked together throughout that period and we both lived to tell about it.  There certainly were challenges that Kathy faced and met head on and, in many cases, to her personal and professional peril.  Kathy lost many clients based on decisions that people didn't understand at the time.  She lost many physician clients for clearly doing the right thing.  She led us through the separation from Ascension Health--certainly not an easy task (and the reason why both Kathy and Kim's board terms were extended due to the loss of almost half of our board) as well as the building of the new hospital.  She challenged us every step of the way and, as a result, the hospital was delivered on time and under budget; unheard of today as well as five years ago when it was completed.  

Today, I am a much better person and leader to have served both these individuals.  Both will be missed for their inclusiveness, their honesty, their tenacity, their intellect, their knowledge, their wealth of experience and most importantly, their wonderful senses of humor.


God speed, Kathy and Kim, from a most grateful health system and community.

Out with the Old and In with the New

I read a great article the other day on CEO leadership written by Bob Herman in Becker's Hospital Review, even though it was originally published in 2012.  The leadership suggestions can be applied to anyone in leadership, even though the article was intended for CEOs.  

The focus of the article is the new thought process for leaders, the long standing initiatives that we need to cast aside and the new ones that need to be adapted.  The dramatic changes in health care are dictating a whole new approach to leadership and some of the old vs new initiatives are very interesting.  The article is attached.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BytSBUSa-SIANS1hb2V0TjNYRFE/edit?usp=sharing

A Segment That Everyone Should Watch

My day starts around 5:30 each day.  Before I began the process to get ready for work, I begin each morning by reviewing emails that were received during the night.  On some occasions, like today, the information received can serve as blog material.  

Late last night, I received a video contained in an email from one of my closest friends, Lou Shapiro.  Lou is the President and CEO for the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC.  Lou's email said that the video was worth watching even though it’s on a show that I probably don't watch on a station that it’s safe to say I never watch.  The piece is about 15 minutes long and it's an editorial by Lawrence O'Donnell, who has a show on MSNBC.  

Lou was right on both counts, but I am just as disenchanted with the Right as I am with the Left.  I am fast becoming a Radical Centrist.  I am sick to death of the polarizing opposites of the far Right and the far Left.  Politically, we need to have some common sense more centrally positioned to prevail in this country, but that's for another day and another blog.  The O'Donnell piece is very well done as it describes his painful ordeal from an automobile accident in the Virgin Islands, his immediate transport to NYC for treatment and care, his recovery and the wonderful people who he met in the process of his ordeal.   What is especially poignant about the piece is that here is a somewhat famous news personality who was never hospitalized in his life and finally got to experience what it was like to have caregivers inside a hospital apply their skills, training and abilities specifically focused on you and your full and complete recovery.  

His focus is the Hospital for Special Surgery, but it can be said of the great majority of hospitals across the US.  All too often, we hear some pretty horrible comments about hospitals through the media.  The piece was both refreshing and spot on; it should be required viewing for a whole lot of people.

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-returns-discusses-his-accident-287481411836

Update on Terrell

I receive a lot of inquires each day as to the health status of my son-in-law Terrell and his bout with high grade osteosarcoma in his right leg.  I previously blogged about Terrell and Jessica's plight on March 11, 2014, shortly after the diagnosis that left everyone in shock.  

First, it was thought to be a tear in the knee, then a benign tumor, only to then get the worst possible news.  Since then, Terrell has had ten weeks of chemotherapy that required a three to four day inpatient stay for each treatment.  Then, surgery that required the knee to be replaced along with 5 inches of his femur.  He was hospitalized for a few days after surgery but has been home for two weeks and is making great progress of late.  

Early on after discharge, Pamela, who is an RN and providing care, assistance and oversight over these two weeks, said that her heart was breaking to see Terrell in that state.  However, since last week he has made great progress under the watchful eyes of his caregivers—-Jessica, his mother Paula, and Nurse Ratchet of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest fame aka Pamela, who can be a task master.  That leg is now weight bearing, he can straighten it and he can bend it 90 degrees.  I attached a photo,  The 39 staples will be removed today.  After seeing the photo, Terrell's nephew shared it with everyone and he had the best line, "that's where they sewed up his robot leg.”  

All is as well as can be expected, but this week is crucial with meetings with his orthopedic surgeon and his oncologist. Also, Terrell is resuming chemotherapy at the end of this week and it is anticipated to continue into October.  Keep them both in your thoughts and prayers.  Thanks.

We Could Do Better

The other evening, I dropped Pamela off to get in line at the movie theater while I parked the car.  The line was pretty long and the 18 commercials, 12 previews and six "turn off your cell phone" reminders were about to begin prior to the movie starting.  As I met her in line, there was a young man two or three couples ahead of us.  He and his girlfriend or wife were at the ticket window and he asked if there was a discount for members of the active military and was told no by the  two 17-year-olds working the ticket window.  Here, this young man, who was still active military, had two prosthetic legs; one would safely assume that if he is still active duty, he lost his legs defending our country.  

Ever since that episode, I have been kicking myself for not reacting faster and paying their way into the movie as a grateful American for the sacrifice that he has made for me, my family and this country.  It was a great lesson for me and I can tell you that should a similar situation occur in the future, I will be ready.  There should also be a standard policy for every business of some kind of discount for active duty military.  What these individuals and their families go through for all of us is amazing and we should better demonstrate how grateful we are as a nation.

I Am Not Native American, But I Am Irish

I just read an article that the US Patent Office has cancelled the trademarks of the Washington Redskins because they are disparaging to Native Americans.   Really?  I mean absolutely no offense to Native Americans, but when is this era of political correctness (PC) going to end?  For just as many Native Americans who are offended by the team name, there are just any many who could care less.  If folks are so offended by the Redskins team name, why is it the 8th most valuable franchise of any sport in the world?  Shouldn't the masses be boycotting and protesting at every game?  (But they're not.)  

With all of that being said, I think that it's high time for me to jump on the PC bandwagon.  If this era of PC that doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon, I am considering legal action against the University of Notre Dame and a request to have their trademarks cancelled because they are disparaging to Irish Americans.  The moniker of the Fighting Irish shows a leprechaun in an ever fighting stance which, in my opinion, I find offensive as it denotes that we Irish are all drunks who are always looking for a fight after a few too many Guinness stouts--talk about disparaging and derogatory toward my heritage. 

Sound silly, well of course it is, after all, it’s about sports and the Washington franchise has been around since 1932.   Of course, my remarks about Notre Dame are tongue in cheek but it gets to the ridiculousness of changing all of these team names, mascots, etc. issues just to satisfy political correctness.

There You Go Again

There was an article in yesterday's Washington Post reporting on US health care as being the least effective and most expensive compared to other industrialized nations.  The report released by a "respected" think tank, the Commonwealth Fund, ranks the US dead last at #11.  Our spending per capita is $8,508 compared to Norway, which is the second most expensive at $5,669.  This particular think tank continues to be a strong proponent of socialized medicine so one might think that the data and analysis may be a bit skewed toward those countries that have a national health program.  If I am not mistaken, all of the remaining ten countries have some form of socialized medicine, scoring very high on the equity factor.  


Now for the rest of the story.  I have blogged previously that the capturing of much of our quality data varies from state to state, let alone country to country.  For example, infant mortality is reported in this study and the definitions of what is infant mortality truly vary from state to state.  Also, in the US, we capture EVERYTHING while other countries do limited or selective capturing of data.  

The study doesn't mention individual outcomes where the US far exceeds other industrialized nations.  For cancers alone, the US ranks well ahead of the UK (which was first overall in the study with per capita spending of $3,405) in 22 of 23 different types of cancers.  

Also, have you ever been in hospitals in these other countries?  In many instances, they are a far cry from state of the art, what our patients have come to expect and on what our hospitals are rated.  Patient satisfaction, which is a major quality indicator for the US, isn't captured in the Commonwealth Fund's latest study.  If that were the case, how would the number one ranked country, United Kingdom, fare?  In recent years, I have read numerous articles about the poor care of its patients, wait times, limited resources, etc.   

Now, are we perfect in the US? No, but in recent years our numbers have improved dramatically in both what is captured in the Commonwealth Fund study and everything else.  The bottom line is that these studies really get to me when they are unfairly conducted and reported simply to push one's own agenda