Nick's Blog

Horses and Love

Sir Winston Churchill said, "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man."   

This week-end something wonderful happened . . . the coming together of people from all geographies, all walks of life, all areas of interest.  They came together for one wonderful thing, to help Windber Regional Hospice.  Now, some of you may be wondering what they did, but back up a few lines and read Sir Winston's quote.  It was the horse show, you know...Pole Bending, Box Keyhole, 50 Yard Dash, Flag Race, Hay Bale Tunnel, Dollar Bareback.

The Greater Johnstown Saddle Club and Golden Star Horse Farm came together once again to raise money for the patients cared for in our palliative care unit and hospice.  The cumulative sum needed each year to cover the costs of the efforts in these two areas is generally over $300,000 and this weekend, thousands of dollars were raised toward this need. Thanks to efforts like this one, neither those who can or those who can't afford it will ever know the difference in their care and treatment.

As in the movie "Casablanca," our own Frankie Bock and her team generated the list of usual suspects to make this all happen. The list went something like this: our donors, sponsors, patrons, show participants, friends, staff of both the Hospice and Medical Center, businesses, and the greatest volunteers anywhere.  If you have no idea who is represented by this list, simply stop by any function touched by the hospice and you will see these faces, hundreds of faces, who make up that list of volunteers, supporters, and sponsors.  It's a wonderful list of truly amazing people, all geared toward one goal, helping families who need hospice care.

One of our non-hospice employees walked up to me with a pretty, fifteen year old girl and said, "Nick, I would like you to meet Lori, her mom passed away in hospice. I just wanted to bring her here today."  That's what we're dealing with: people who care about their fellow human beings.

As my grandson walked up to the show area to look at the horses, a non-Windber physician came up to me with the tallest horse I'd ever seen and said, "If he'd like a ride, I'd be happy to let him ride my horse for the judging."  He, along with a few dozen other kids, won a trophy, and that trophy never left his hand the rest of the day.  People taking care of people.  People reaching out, sharing, working to help other people.

There was food, plenty of food. There was plenty of great food, prepared, sold and served by this group of wonderful volunteers.  There were children's games and activities, a Chinese auction and drawings. It was people caring for people: feeding them, nurturing them, watching out for their human, physical needs.

One of the baskets that was being raffled was called a kid's basket and in it was grooming equipment; brushes, oils and other wonderful accoutrements for grooming horses; for teaching care and nurturing at a very young age.  Groom a horse, love one of the creatures of the universe, and the universe will teach you to pass that love onto others.

It's all about kindness.  It's all about giving because in giving we receive. Saint Francis of Assisi once said, "Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”   This group of usual suspects live those words as they care for each others, for their patients, their friends, their loved ones.  Hospice is amazing, and unless or until this country understands completely the beauty of this program, we will continue to suffer death in hospital rooms crowded together without support, without nurturing, without love.

From our Hospice physician, Dr. Kelly Warshal...

"So now, after a few days with us, I am sending the patient home on nothing, no drugs, nothing but our own hospice blend of flower essences like angel’s trumpet to help to prepare him for the transition into the spiritual world. He is talking, blowing us kisses, and eating pudding.  I LOVE MY JOB!”

Become a Windber Hospice volunteer. You'll love your job, too.

An Amazing Day and Night

Once every five or so years a real tragedy seems to strike; the flood, a tornado, the trapped miners, Flight 93.  Most of the time, day after day we rehearse, we prepare, we practice and we plan, but today it was not practice; it was not a rehearsal.   Today, it was the real thing.  It started out with a call from our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Eckenrode who wanted me to know that the scanners were reporting a lightning strike and fire at one of the area's premier senior living centers, Laurel View Village. 

Having lived just five houses away from the Village for a decade, my level of concern was minimal.  They had two hour rated fire-walls, sprinkler systems, and every other fire prevention device, warning system and protective mechanism possible.  Like hospitals; nursing homes and villages are among the top two or three most highly regulated industries in the United States, but the lighting took out the alarms and communications, and the water level was so low that there wasn't even enough pressure for the sprinkler system to do its job. 

About five minutes after Jim's call, a new reality began to sink in when I was able to make two phone calls to our board members who lived near the site of the fire.  Because of the lack of water pressure, the firemen were faced with a nightmare situation. They could point the hoses, but little or nothing was coming out.  The fire got away from the volunteers and began to devastate the entire structure.  Thankfully, all of their practice paid off as the nearly 200 residents were all safely evacuated.  By then I was at the sight discussing the availability of patient spaces at Windber Medical Center with the paramedics.  Before long, we received a call telling us that 20 residents were on their way.

The hospital's nursing supervisor called the emergency code that brought our staff into a readiness position to handle the incoming patients.  Employees and physicians came in from home, stayed overtime and made themselves available for the arriving visitors.  Each patient was registered, transported, and then the real work began: we moved them into the patient rooms, logged them in, began food service, received medication instructions and began to escort loved ones to their stranded relatives and friends. 

Our team was amazing.  They were completely professional, competent, and did their jobs like a well-oiled machine; a well-oiled, sensitive, loving, nurturing, caring machine.  It was an amazing day, and after a contentious, mind-numbing early morning meeting, a horrible interaction with an oversight group and a very difficult series of administrative sessions, it all came home tonight when we worked the halls side by side with the most amazing group of caregivers ever amassed in one wonderful hospital. 

There's care... and then, THERE'S WINDBERCARE.   

(Photo: Dave Lloyd/The Tribune-Democrat)

"Network" — It's a cleansing moment of clarity.

The Muffin Man

Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man,
Do you know the Muffin man, that lives on Drury Lane?

Once, a long time ago, in a job that was far far away, a friend of mine began to sing that lyric to me, but she sang it with a different twist.  The word "muffin" instead became NETWORK, and I became the object of the song.  Do you know the network man, the network man, the network man? 

Actually, that song could be applied to some incredibly talented people in this area, people who are much more effective than I am and who normally stay right below the view of the radar screen as they make good things happen for us all.  These people are the absolute Movers and Shakers;  Ed Cernic, Ron Repak, Mark Pasquerilla, Don Zucco, John Hugya, and the list goes on and on and on.  They are a few of the people who have mastered this process and have invited me to participate periodically over the past three plus decades, to play in the Big Show. 

To what do I refer?  Networking.  Networking is the key to growth, success, survivability, and paradigm breaking.  It surpasses almost any other talent, skill, or capability except for persistence which is the next major attribute needed to make things happen. 

The last two weeks were clearly ten working days where the network has begun to pay off in ways that will be very clear to many of you in the not too distant future.  We interacted with men and women in positions of power who hold the key to the future of not only Windber Medical Center, but also to the future of this region, and they have responded accordingly.   Representative Murtha's staff, Representative Shuster, PA Senator Wozniak, the County Commissioners of both Somerset and Cambria Counties, the Secretaries of the Department of Community and Economic Development, Transportation, Environmental Resources, the Vice President of one of the largest regulatory organizations in the world, the Governor, the Mayor, captains of industry, members of the Church and, last but not least, our board; judges, attorneys, physicians, investors, business planners and one candle stick maker. (It just seemed like we needed one here.)

Much of this networking was made possible because of thirty eight years of honest brokering that have not made me personally wealthy, healthy or, for that matter, excessively wise.  People know if your intentions are directed toward the greater good, toward a better plan for mankind and toward what could be positive solutions for difficult challenges, and that's where we live.

It is my prediction that you will begin to see incredible developments that have come from what can only be described as serendipitous collisions of positive karma.  Windber Medical Center will become the FIRST _________________  (fill in the blank), at least six more times because of the meetings held during these past few weeks, and this progress will all be because we know how to dream, allow ourselves to embrace those dreams, and persist to encourage those dreams to become new realities that others cannot even fathom. 

Stay tuned as the network begins to explode with good will, good direction, good partners and great assistance. The dam has been breached and the fields will receive the necessary nurturing and irrigation now to allow the seeds to grow and produce the crops necessary to feed this area for decades to come.  Nothing can stop us now. 

Thanks for inviting me to the party, because it is the only place I have ever wanted to be.

Two brief articles on WMC's Dr. Kim Marley and Nick Jacobs from Western PA Hospital News. (In Adobe Reader .pdf format)

Please spread the word!...

As Windber Medical Center comes closer to entering a new era, a Back to the Future position as an independent, stand alone hospital, I am personally appealing to you through this medium to assist us in ways that we have never asked before. 

We need to spread the word about our attributes, accomplishments, attractions, and clinical excellence. 

The current situation is such that, our competitors have access to the same newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations that we do but with more cash to spread the word about their virtues, or perceived virtues, it's hard to get above the buzzzz.   How does a smaller organization tell its story effectively and impressively with much less cash?  We do it through YOU.

Whereas it used to take seven or so exposures to different types of media to get someone's attention, it now probably takes twenty or more.

If you are a community member, an employee, a patient, a friend or just happened to fall upon this site by accident, we are asking you to do something aggressively to assist WMC to grow and expand our reach.  We are asking you to look back through the last twenty or so posts, cut and paste your favorite one about us, or copy the link and e-mail it to friends, family and neighbors.

Maybe it will be the post on our Innovation Awards, or on our unique research, our prominent visitors or our phenomenal statistics.  How about one that delineates our comprehensive collection of advanced imaging technology, or that features information about our Planetree philosophy?  Integrative Health, Healing Services, multiple therapies, behavioral modification programs, et al.

If you're looking for shortcuts to lead people to this blog, they can be found under Nick's Blog, (#1 on Google and number one in your heart); windberblog.typepad.com; windbercare.com, blog tab; wriwindber.org, blog tab and by typing in thousands of keywords ranging from Yoda to Pittsburgh.

Please take a few minutes and help get those hits up. 

This week we had about 25 mostly local people come to WRI for a meeting about Windber Medical Center, and one piece of concrete information that came from this ad hoc, focus group is that they know little or nothing about us.  They said things like, "Do you have an ER?" Yep, see about 14,000 people there.  Do you have surgery here?  Yep, did about 2000 major surgeries last year and had over 100,000 outpatients visits.  "Do you have an MRI?"  Sure do.  It's a 3T (3 Tesla) magnet. There are NONE of those anywhere around here except in Pittsburgh and Morgantown.

If you go to YouTube.com and type in Windbercare, you will find more than a half dozen videos about our medical center and research.  If you go to Planetree.org, that web site also features us.  Type Nick Jacobs into any search engine, you will be exposed to numerous WMC stories... and one really interesting guy from San Diego?

We have had pieces about us in the Associated Press, Fortune, Forbes, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and hundreds of other newspapers and magazines.  We have been featured on Paul Harvey and the News, in Oncology International, on the Today Show, CNN, WPXI, Penn State, WPSX, WJAC, WTAJ, WWCP, Fox 8 and that's just the beginning.  Hospital News Western PA, Atlanta, Chicago, South Florida; Hospital Impact.org; WorldHealthcareblog.org; Blue H News; and hundreds of other web sites and publications have also told our story. One of our focus group members indicated that we are much better known nationally and internationally than in the Windber area.

So, we need you now more than ever. 

Please, just take a moment and humor us.  Tell people that they'll have good luck if they read our website. Help us communicate to the area via the internet. 

If you can prove that you sent one of our sites on to at least ten people, we'll give you a free treat in our cafeteria any day during the first week of September . . . (Kimmi, that would be one of our magnificent, logo covered treats from Cura!)

And, if you can demonstrate that you have done this 100 times, I'll buy you lunch.  We call it pizza with the President, and it's NOT "W." 

Now, let's get busy!  We have a hospital to save and grow.  We think we can... We think we can... We think we can...  Heck, we KNOW we can!!!

A Few Good Men

Progress?

From the movie A Few Good Men

 

Jessep: You want answers?

Kaffee: I think I'm entitled to them.

Jessep: You want answers?

Kaffee: I want the truth.

Jessep: You can't handle the truth!

It was our intention to dedicate this blog to our future and the future of Windber Medical Center.  Unfortunately, the joint press statement regarding our future has not been released as of 5:00 PM today.  Consequently, this blog will be about a myriad of non-controversial topics that may prove beneficial in enhancing your sleep.  Now, don't get me wrong, it's all important, but if you are reading this just to find out what occurred with our recent negotiations, you will be disappointed.

First, we had over 200 inpatients in July.  The significance of that number will be completely missed by everyone unless we add in the fact that this does not include a relatively new category called hold for observation patients.

The concept of hold for observation was created by insurance companies so that hospitals will treat inpatients while they are being observed for specific diseases or conditions. It started with a few hours of observation, then a day, then a few days, and now some companies are enforcing up to 72 hours of observation.  Our average length of stay for any patient is only about 74 hours. Sound reasonable? From the Captain's deck, I can tell you that it is not.

The really bad news is that the hospital will only be reimbursed as if these patients are strictly outpatients.  The patient is treated no differently.  The care givers provide the same level of treatment, and the amount of attention to the patient is the same.  The only difference is that the insurance companies do not provide the hospitals with the same levels of reimbursement.

So, back to the story.  Two hundred inpatients plus a few dozen hold for observation patients tend to make life interesting for July. January? Maybe. February?  Sure, but July?  Usually the absolutely lowest numbers of inpatients are present during the summer months.  Are people discovering Windber Medical Center?  Yes, last month 80 people discovered Windber Medical Center for the first time.

What else happened this week?  The annual golf tournament happened, our 21st annual golf tournament, to be precise.  Now, I don't golf, but about 150 men and women did play golf. The big difference between this golf tournament and the last 20 tournaments was the amount of money generated from our donors.  This year's gross number was over $60,000, at least a third more than last year.  We are excited about this number because it shows support, the support of a grateful community.  Thanks to our incredible team from the Windber Healthcare Foundation and their amazing, hard-working golf committee for their making this program a success.

Finally. . .babies! There is a very good chance that WMC will be the birthplace of nearly 300 babies this year.  It's probably been forty years since 300 babies were born here.

So, hold onto your hats . . . It could very well be the best year we've ever had.

 

 

Footnote:

Nick,

I just received my computerized, monthly summary report by patient type.  We actually had not just a few dozen observation patients in the month of July.  We actually had 97 stand alone observation patients, patients who did not turn into inpatients but remained in observation status throughout their hospital stay.  That means we went over the 300 mark for in-house patients in July . . .amazing, huh?

Sue