Nick's Blog

Let's Lighten Up and Light it Up

Okay, let's lighten it up a little.  The medical center is PACKED.  The budget is working.  The Netherlands wants us to form at least two companies with them. We start out fresh with that charge. Our real U.S. partners are lining up to collaborate. 

It may be November. . . well, it's almost November.  Okay, it will be November, and it's that time of the year in our area when we know that we are really alive.  We feel the biting winds, the bone chilling cold and the brisk crashing of snow flakes against our cheeks at 40 mph. . . And that's inside my house.  (We live on top of a very cold, windy hill.)  We know we're alive because we shake and shiver like a puppy in a thunder storm.  We're only weeks away from our deep back aches prompted by lifting shovels filled with heavy, white, wet snow. 

We are about a month away from our infamous, December 1st Holiday Party, and, for the Christians in the house, we're only about 55 days from Christmas. It's about 600 hours from big game season, and nearly the same amount of time until Black Friday, and not that long until Hanukkah.  Really, I don't care what you're celebrating, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, or the second anniversary of your divorce. . . just get your head out from between your knees and smell the burning leaves.

This week I invested every day and night in your future.  We negotiated business deals, recruitment efforts, new businesses.  Heck, we even negotiated snow removal. 

Now, let's LIGHT it up.  Our next really big community event is coming up on November 18th at 5:30 PM. It starts at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton with a nondenominational healing service and then moves up cardiac hill, a.k.a. 7th Street to the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center where the actual "Lights of Love" will be placed, lighted, lit or turned on by someone other than me.  There will be soothing music, and then there will be snacks, and some brass music and more food. 

The lighting ceremony at 6:30 PM will illuminate the Caring Park and will memorialize the souls and honor the living who have come and gone through Windber Medical Center and the Windber Hospice.  Like I said, there will be music and food and food and music and suave people in attractive winter outfits.  (I got a new coat last year at the end of the season.)

In conclusion, you need to know that the best, most generous, most loving, most nerve-wracking, (Oops, this is supposed to be a positive blog) time of the year is almost here.   Stick out your tongue and eat a snowflake, but, for goodness sake, watch out for the nonwhite snow!!

Okay, Settle Down...

Well, the house is filled with apprehension that, come January, Memorial is taking over Windber, that all of you will be thrown out onto the streets, and we will be turned into Crichton Center East. 

Okay, it's not true. 

In fact, if anything, the meeting in January could possibly represent the beginning of a health system model that might start to take shape officially by next July for implementation to begin topic by topic over the next few years.

Like I said in the last blog, our board and every board in the health system is charged to explore all of the ramifications, potential ramifications, and even unseen potential ramifications of the new proposed structure.  They do have options: be a full member of the System or be a non strategic partner of the system.  Every aspect of the financial and political implications of these options will be debated, discussed, and eventually decided.

So, just chill.  We are a full service, acute care, Planetree Hospital in Windber, Pennsylvania that is part of the Conemaugh Health System with 100 years of wonderful experience, and we will go on.

 

The Changing Market

The philosophical implications of being a more closely integrated member of the Conemaugh Health System are being evaluated and negotiated at the governance level.  In other words, our board leadership is deciding the where's, how's and what-if's of acquiescing specific board decision making to a new system Board and what that will mean to Windber Medical Center.

At a lower level though, as a participant in the Health System's Strategic Planning Leadership Team, several realities have been specifically delivered to us from the Decision Support Team of CHS that are directly tied into WMC.

Just for fun, here's what we learned today: Windber Medical Center's market share is made up of 20% of people over 65 and that number is expected to grow to 25% by 2015.  Because they are our primary customers, our next ten years should be relatively stable.  Conversely, our 18 to 44 year old category is expected to decrease by 35% through 2015.  If you're in the OB business that should make you say "wow."  We need younger people to move into this area or else there won't be enough babies to go around.

WMC's outpatient visits have increased by 89% since 2000, and the Emergency Department has seen a 25.4% increase.  Overall, our inpatient market share has changed by less than 1%. The biggest changes we've seen?  Alum Bank dropped from 17% to 9% market share, and our New Paris market share has dropped from 7% to 3.65%.

WMC consistently had a market share of between 15 and 17% in the St. Michael area.  That market share has dropped to 11% and Nason Hospital's market share increased by that same 6%.  Does anyone know where Nason Hospital is located?  Clearly, the people from St. Michael know. 

What do these numbers mean to Windber Medical Center?  It means that our work is cut out for us.  We will address all of these numbers from a strategic perspective and make the appropriate adjustments, and, from an economic development perspective...SEND US YOUR 18 to 44 year olds.

Having a Baby

The text message came through at 12:03 PM that our daughter-in-law was about to be induced.  Our son's first child was on its way, and so were we.  At approximately 2:30 PM, we packed quickly, got into our respective vehicles and headed out for Northern Virginia.  After three failed attempts to find the parking garage that made sense (gold, blue, or green?), we arrived at the hospital at approximately 5:45 PM and entered the Women's and Children's Wing of the 365-bed tertiary care center.

We arrived at Room #1 on the maternity floor and began our wait.

The staff was pleasant enough, without ever making a real commitment, and the accommodations for mom were somewhat above average in the LDR (Labor/Delivery/Recovery) rooms.

Twelve hours after our departure from home, however, we found ourselves seated in straight back chairs in a brightly-lit hallway with carts and beds going by as we waited for the blessed event, with absolutely no chance of catching even a wink of sleep. These were not exactly comfortable surroundings.

In typical, traditional hospital fashion, the rooms had white curtains and white sheets.  No, there was no bread baking, no hand-painted borders above the matching wallpaper, or comfortable lounge chairs and extra beds for the families.  Food?  Food was impossible to find without traveling the equivalent of three city blocks through a maze of hallways and between buildings. When you finally did find it, it was high in fat, trans-fat and consisted of all of the traditional hospital fare. (Green Jello anyone?) On the bright side, however, the halls were clean, the air was pleasantly free of the pungent smell of institutional antiseptics, and the paintings were tastefully arranged.

So, after 12 hours, what was missing besides the kid ?

Planetree was missing.

No one cared that we couldn't get comfortable. That's just the way it was. Overhead paging continued well into the night. The lights were never dimmed.  There were no double beds in the maternity suites for the father and mother after the birth. It was chilly and very uncomfortable.  No one stopped to talk, give directions, or even express interest in our presence...but it is the big time there, and they obviously are meeting their customers' needs.

At precisely 4:26 AM on Friday the 13th, little Lucy was born.  On a positive note, when I asked her mom how bad the pain had been, she smiled and said, honestly, I didn't have any pain. So, kudos to the anesthesiologist. They sure got that part right, and that in itself may negate some of my other observations.

So, as the day ended at 6:00 AM for the new and the old family, it was really clear that one 11 month old girl who was with us throughout this entire journey and her newborn cousin would be bosom buddies. It was also clear that the BOY had better watch out when the two of them get together to play on holidays and special occasions.

Jude, Nina and LUCY in the sky with diamonds. . .this world will all be yours someday, not too far from now.

Our Dark Side (or Who Was Nice and Who Was NOT)

Let me begin by putting all of my cards on the table. This is not meant to be a sour grapes rant. It's intended to keep us focused on this short journey through time and space called life. It's meant to remind us how much nicer it could be if we simply embraced The Golden Rule. No, not the one about "He who has the most gold rules."

As a birthday gift to my retired brother, my present to him was a trip to San Diego to see the Chargers vs.the Steelers. Please, no applause, it was partial payment for a lifetime of IOU's.

During this four day journey into uncharted waters, we had an opportunity to observe literally thousands of people in every aspect of living. To begin to express the contrasts that we witnessed might be as difficult as differentiating between the management style of Curious George the Monkey compared to General George the Patton.

The one-for-all-and-all-for-myself mentality clearly won out in this climatic paradise known as San Diego. Rudeness, insensitivity and some deeply misplaced anger ruled the day at the game. Passion and sportsmanship were outweighed by alcohol, anger and toxic behavior.

In mixed company with children present, the screaming attendees in our section sounded more like x-rated rappers than passionate fans. Believe me, I'm no goody-two-shoes, but, seriously...it was somewhat NUTS. There were fights, near fights and taunting wishes for fights. There was a point at which, during our walk out of the stadium, we had a genuine feeling of "will we get out of here with our limbs intact?"...and THEY HAD WON THE GAME.

The purpose of this blog is not to bore you with sports information, it is to question the future of our galaxy. Will we fight and scream and kick ourselves into oblivion when there are clearly better choices? It's like the current contrasts between North Korea and the Amish. What an amazing example they have both presented to us this past week.

It doesn't have to all be about conservative or liberal politics, religious choices, or one sports team versus another. It can be about humanness. It can be about this journey together on this tiny little planet called Earth and about making that trip with dignity, understanding  and human consciousness.