Nick's Blog

Memorial Day Weekend

When the Memorial Day weekend comes around each year, we focus on the price of gasoline, picnics, and family gatherings, but, most importantly, we focus on the men and women of our military; those who have given of themselves to defend and protect our country. As a member of the Baby Boom generation, we have seen the end of WWII; the Korean Conflict, Viet Nam, the Gulf War, Kosovo and Iraq. It is sadly apparent to me that every generation will have its own war, and fifty years from now you will be honoring the heroes of those conflicts as well.

For those of you who are familiar with our work at the Windber Research Institute, you know that we have numerous research contracts with the Department of Defense; that we are studying heart disease, ovarian, cervical, endometrial, and breast cancers.  Our largest and most comprehensive program is the breast cancer award, and the glue that has held that program together is a U.S. Army Colonel by the name of Dr. Craig Shriver.  He is an MD, a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons, Chief of General Surgery Service, Chief of the General Surgery Residency Program and Clinical Breast Care Program Director and Principal Investigator. He has been our friend and close professional companion for nearly seven years. 

At the end of April, Dr. Craig Shriver was deployed to Afghanistan.

We had mistakenly believed that the list of responsibilities delineated above, combined with his original orders to serve the United States by protecting the United States would have discouraged anyone from deploying him away from us, but the military has a precise method to determine who goes where and when they go, and Craig is currently somewhere deep in that country... most probably between Kabul and Jalalabad.  We are not strangers to this situation, as Dr. Kim Marley, our surgeon specializing in minimally invasive procedures, had served his country as a Ranger/Green Beret in Afghanistan before he officially joined us at Windber Medical Center as well.

It is not easy for any of us, knowing that our friend could, at any moment, be in harm's way, and we can only imagine what his loving wife, son and daughter are thinking and praying about this Memorial Day weekend. 

Craig Shriver is originally from Pennsylvania, attended Temple University and even did a rotation through Conemaugh as a young intern.  He is a PA kid and, like the author of this blog, was a trumpet player.  So, you can believe that we have never had a lack of common ground for conversation over these past several years.

He shares the following message with us this weekend:

I have been busy here. I am proud to be serving in America's truly most forward battlefield in the War on Terror in Afghanistan, and look forward to returning to all my dear friends like yourself, and my family, in the future.

As you pause to remember our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen -- fighting men and women stationed all over the world, please remember Dr. Shriver in your thoughts and prayers this Memorial Day weekend. Our hearts and concern go out to him and we pray that he will return safely to lead us in our effort to find cures for breast cancer. Godspeed, Craig.

AHA, ACHE, HAP, HCWP, PMHA, VHA, Planetree

The American Hospital Association, the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, the Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania, the Voluntary Hospital Association, and Planetree are just a FEW of the professional organizations that we at Windber Medical Center support.  If you take the combined dues of each of these organizations, it amounts to a little less than $100K a year.  For those dues, we receive bulletins, e-mails, circulars, tips, warnings, magazines, financial updates, savings on some purchases, lobbying, legislative dinners, membership support, and access to conferences, conventions, educational workshops, some grants for disaster planning and the like.

This week, though, we committed to join the Pennsylvania Mountains Healthcare Alliance (PMHA).  As some of you may have read on our recent HospitalImpact.org post, it is a group of 12 or so hospitals ranging in size from $30 to $120M; small and medium sized acute care hospitals scattered throughout the mountains of Pennsylvania.  It is a collection of hospitals who are fighting the same fight, namely survival in West Central Pennsylvania. We live everyday with the knowledge that someone would like to eat our lunch, or, worse yet, just close us down outright .

Why, after all of those initials above, did we join PMHA?  It is a group of hospitals that have come together to help each other in every way possible while still permitting independence, still permitting autonomy, still embracing the philosophy of states rights, and working every day to ensure that every dollar that can be saved will be. They are not dominated by one large hospital. Instead, they work together in areas like health insurance for their employees, purchasing and liability insurance. They provide physicians to each other for peer review of difficult cases. They are positioned to assist each other with telemedicine pharmacists, data repositories and numerous other initiatives that will  potentially save each member hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. 

Their combined charges amount to more than a billion dollars a year. They aren't about power, control or domination.  In fact, if this model continues to work as effectively as it seems to have over the past few years, it could very easily be a federated system model for small and medium sized hospitals across the United States.

What else happened this week? We spoke to the National Association for Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) and for the Bethany United Methodist Church Mother's Day Breakfast. 

General Electric Consulting presented a very comprehensive plan for WMC to improve productivity and increase revenue.  We interviewed two PhD candidates for the Windber Research Institute.  Booz Allen Hamilton confirmed their commitment to work with WRI on strategic initiatives, and finally, we continued to meet with radiologists to attempt to negotiate a new contract.

Next week, more PhD interviews, a series of meetings in Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh, a speech at the Outstanding Youth dinner, a visit to the Gunter Leadership Graduation Luncheon, a Red Cross board of Director's Meeting and a visit with a potential joint venture partner. 

Nick Jacobs leads a training/mentoring session on The Power of Delegation for the John B. Gunter Young Business Leaders initiative

What Makes A Story?

I've been in the world of health care administration for twenty years, and during much of that time have had responsibility for public relations and marketing.  About five years ago, Windber Medical Center was recognized as one of fifteen hospitals in the United States that specialized in patient centered care.  The honor came from Modern Maturity Magazine, the publication of AARP.  It was an enormous honor and a great story that was picked up world wide.  We were featured in hundreds of newspapers, radio and television stations throughout the United States and the world.  We received dozens of copies of those stories from former Windber residents who were proud that their town was given this type of recognition.  It was one of our greatest honors, and, because of the dedication of our employees, it was truly well deserved. 

That story didn't make the local newspaper. They decided that it DID NOT merit coverage because it was, after all, only one media outlet's claim. The same decision was made when we were featured in numerous other magazines and newspapers; Wall Street Journal, Oncology News International, Health Leaders Magazine, CNN, NBC, Forbes and Fortune to name a few. 

Hey, they make the rules. 

Interestingly enough, this week's honor by Fierce Healthcare was also unsolicited, and was incredibly meaningful to us because, as you can read in the guest blog below, it recognized some very powerful organizations side by side with Windber Medical Center. It, once again, put us on the national map.

I am thrilled to report that, after all of these hard fought years, we were featured in the paper this time. Specifically, we were featured in a section today called In Brief.  You know, In Brief where the little brief headlines read: "Man's Quad Hit By Blue Ice From Airplane Toilet" or "Family of Sixteen Chased By Wild Groundhogs."  Hey, but we made the local Johnstown paper this time.   

The rationale as to why it wasn't a bigger story?  "It's only a story that other hospitals would care about."  Truthfully, other hospitals wouldn't give a hoot about it, but the guy down the street who saw the award might think twice before driving to Hershey to have his hip done, or driving to Pittsburgh for his carpal tunnel surgery. If our local public was exposed to a story that touts a local hospital as one of national caliber, it might indeed capture the imagination of our local population, help keep our local employees at work, and assist in the local economy. 

Oh, well, I'm not a reporter, editor, or a publisher, and I surely don't play one on TV.  I'm not about to second guess these decisions because the paper has been great to us plenty of other times, and, like Mark Twain said, "Don't ever pick a fight with someone who buys Ink by the barrel ." Truthfully, our coverage from other local papers and TV stations was just great, too.  It was a grand slam sweep.

It is really fun, though, to have this blog, because people from all over the world will now know that Windber is even a little more special than they might have ever guessed... all 45,000 of our regular readers.   

Windber Named One of America's Most Innovative Hospitals

Just announced by prestigious industry analysts Fierce Healthcare:

"We are pleased to announce the release of our first-annual Hospital Innovators Awards —honoring U.S. acute care hospitals that have taken a leadership role on critical industry issues... These awards honor some of the most innovative acute care hospitals that are stepping outside of 'business as usual' and getting special things done. Some are strikingly original, and others are just doing a great job of solving common industry problems."

1.	Memorial Hospital-South Bend	6.	Sisters of Mercy
2.	Licking Memorial Hospital	7.	St. Joseph's Hospital
3.	University of Pittsburgh Medical Center	8.	Griffin Hospital
4.	Winona Health	9.	Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
5.	Windber Medical Center	10.	Morton Plant Mease Health Care

From Fierce Healthcare's 2007 award page recognizing Windber Medical Center as one of the TOP FIVE most innovative hospitals in America:

"What they're doing: Despite its rural location and small scale, there are some things going on at Windber Medical Center that sit on the cutting edge. Windber's system...is tying together the work being done by its Windber Research Institute with day-to-day clinical practice. This concept is mostly at the idea stage in most institutions, including high-profile, big-bucks academic medical centers, but Windber is making it happen."

"Under this concept, known as The Model, patient care teams now include not only physicians and nurses, but also a researcher from the Institute whose job it is to apply what they're learning in the lab. Researchers draw in part on knowledge gained from the Institute's 40,000-donor tissue bank, which includes attributes such as gender, age, ethnicity and medical history, to predict what patients may need given the experience of similar donors. It's a noteworthy strategy--especially for a small facility out in the boonies."

"What's more, Windber has jumped into the Planetree model with both feet... As CEO Nick Jacobs puts it, the Planetree philosophy offers patients 'the best of a spa, best of a hotel and best of a hospital,' complete with integrative health features such as massage, aroma therapy and Reiki, and comfort options like private kitchens, popcorn and bread making machines for patient's families, double beds in OB, a greenhouse, healing gardens and decorative fountains. On the less touchy-feely side, this model also gives patients complete access to charts during their stay, giving them chance to ask questions as they see fit. While Planetree has its detractors, it's hard [not] to argue that Windber is making a great go of it."

This is actually the second time Windber has received accolades for innovation within the last month. Fierce Healthcare's award comes on the heels of the April 17, 2007 issue of Inside Healthcare Computing, in which Nick Jacobs is interviewed about this very blog, along with Microsoft's Global Healthcare Industry Director, Bill Crounse MD, Promedica Research Center's Carol Kirshner and myself, guest blogging for Nick, while he's traveling between destinations.

Read excerpts from Inside Healthcare Computing, or  download the complete article (as an Adobe Acrobat/Reader document) here.

So, congratulations to all within the WindberCare family of organizations whose creativity, compassion, hard work and innovation continue to earn global recognition for clinical and research excellence.

—Posted by: Mike Russell

Sleepless Nights

How hard would it be to install HEPA filters on airplanes?  Seriously, every time I fly cross country, it seems that some URI (upper respiratory infection) jumps into my body.  It starts off with a little, dry cough, then evolves into hacking fits that last from approximately 1:00 AM until 4:30 AM every night for four nights. It's always great to get up an hour and a half later, shower and go to work to hear everyone say, "You look terrible." 

So, here was our week:

We spoke at the Consumer Health World conference in Las Vegas on Monday, hence the plane ride.  Then flew home on the red eye seated in seat 6C on a 757.  Just like row 22 on a 727, row 6 has the seats that won't recline because the bathroom is practically attached to them. Needless to say, between the flushing and the locking and unlocking of that folding door, there was no sleep on the red eye. 

The young man who sat beside me was on his way to a five year prison term in a southern, federal prison.  He had six kids under the age of eight at home and had just spent ten of his last thirteen days of freedom in Vegas.  (I'm not sure how that works with parole officers, but he seemed to have had a great time.)

We began the clean up after Hurricane JOINT hit last week.  We had our May board meeting.  We continued discussions with our attorneys to ensure that the road we are following is not the Burma Road.  "Come in Rangoon...Are you there?"

We held meetings with some of our Emergency Room docs, received news that on the 9th of May we would be recognized with a very prestigious award for our medical center.  We began negotiations with a prominent disease-related foundation and a huge medical based company, drove to Pittsburgh for a reception featuring the phenomenal Elsie Hillman, benefactor and supporter of all things Pittsburgh, began the negotiating process for our annual golf outing, helped our friends from Highlands Hospital on their journey to dealing with research on post traumatic stress disorder.  We then spoke with a few dozen employees during our Pizza with the President birthday celebration, negotiated a compromise between one of our docs and a manager that lasted less than ten minutes, met with a new benefits manager, wrote a few articles and blogs, got to visit Lucy on the way back from the airport, and spent the last few hours reading to Jude and Nina.

Another week is gone, and tomorrow will be a fascinating day as we go to a social event featuring our old friend and musician, Harold Betters. 

Maybe, just maybe next week will bring some resolution to some very pressing issues.  We are trying to wrap up arrival of our funding from the joint contracts that we have with the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Gynecological Disease project, and University of Nevada Las Vegas.  Interviews will begin with new PhD's coming to the research institute, and my daughter will be celebrating her 29th birthday for the third time. 

Stay tuned, the fun has just begun.