Well, I guess that with a one and a three year old running around the house, being exposed to large birthday gatherings with lots of sick kids, working in a hospital, and traveling from city to city, it's bound to catch up with you, and it has. I'm currently living through what was my annual (and now seems like my semi-annual) slimming down session. No food in 48 hrs and . . . well, you get the picture. So, Thanksgiving was in bed, and so was the day after.
There are those who believe that I beat myself up so badly for months at a time, that the inevitable crash-and-burn has to hit where my body just screams out . . . enough! There are others, however, who tell me to just wash my hands more thoroughly.
So, what's going on? We are working toward formation of a for-profit corporation to enable us to move forward with our Netherlands partnerships. We are continuously redesigning the staffing at WRI, primarily due to changing reimbursements and grants. We are having the best financial year ever at Windber Medical Center, but, don't misunderstand that one, we need to have the best year ever. Two of our radiology suites and a C arm went down within a week of each other, and they all will be replaced within the month.
Our free articles for "Our Town" are developing a readership following. If you haven't seen any of them, they may actually help you smile once in a while.
HospitalImpact.org continues to gain readership as do our articles in Hospital News, also free. You may be wondering how I find time to write. . . and so do I. It just seems as if, because I can't play the trumpet around sleeping babies, and my drawing has taken a hiatus due to a floater the size of a tyrannosaurus in my left eye, maybe the writing gives me a chance to do something other than focus on resource allocations and, well, resource allocations.
Finally, I want to comment on being a High "I." For those of you who don't know what that means, there is something called the DISC personality profile. You can find it on-line. High "I's" are typically people people, and are typically not presidents or football coaches.
There are lots of good things about high "I's." Most of which revolve around the fact that we're usually nice. We like people to like us, and we are sometimes charming; not always, but sometimes. Well, when I became President of the hospital, I had plenty of concerns about being a High "I" personality type. You see, High "I's" will do almost anything to avoid conflict. They want to be diplomats. They want to have happy endings. Then, I discovered that Dwight Eisenhower was a High "I," and I felt better. He had all of those High "D" generals reporting to him, and still got the job done through leadership and consensus.
Let me close this by saying that the biggest problem I've had as a High "I" has been in my selection of the people who work the most closely with me. My inner self told me that I needed people who would pay attention to detail because I usually don't. My intuition was strong enough to lead me toward some scientists and mathematicians. It was not a MENSA IQ that made me realize that these people needed varying backgrounds to fill in all of the pieces of the puzzle.
Well, I can tell you that, of the eighteen or so people who have been selected by me for those spots over the past ten years, only about nine have worked out. If this was baseball, I'd be rich, but, in health care, it's been a royal pain.
So, for those of you who have been able to hang with me, God Bless You. . . and for those of you who have not, you're probably just as happy that life took you in a different direction, because I'm sure I just MADE YOU NUTS.
Nick - treat yourself very kindly during the next few weeks .. I would be so disappointed if you were ill for the Healthcare Symposium in December ..
Posted by: Toby | Sunday, November 26, 2006 at 02:15 PM