Nick's Blog

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round (Jacobs Announces Retirement December 31st)

Okay, so the word is out, way way out, that my tenure at WMC/WRI is beginning to wane.  As I look toward the next chapter of my life, there is something that you all need to know.  The board has met with both leadership teams to reiterate their complete support of my position until I am no longer here.  What does that mean?  It's like the old saying, "It ain't over until it's over."  

Interestingly, when one of my senior leaders heard my plans, he turned to me and said, "I can see it now. In about a year after you are gone, there will be weeds growing in the fountains, the trees will all be cut down, and all of the bullies will rise again!"  In fact, the rubber band seems to have started to return to its original shape already.  Last week we had an employee make one of our most important sponsors the offer of an appointment sometime next year. That sponsor selected another physician at another facility.  We then had another employee inappropriately question a guest's intentions. 

Let me tell you that, until they pry my retired fingers from my presidential desk, the weeds will not take over, the bullies will not be tolerated, and anyone who does not demonstrate love and respect for our patients and their families will be offered a transfer to any of our neighboring hospitals.  There is NO ROOM here for tolerance of anything that does NOT produce an optimal healing environment, that is NOT PLANETREE in every way, that does not embrace the vision of prevention, wellness, respect, and love.

I'm sorry if I sound upset, but this is an extremely serious situation. If any of you believe that we can go back to being a "NORMAL" hospital and survive, your head is buried deeply in the sand.  If any of you think we can be unpleasant and continue to capture the imagination of our patients and their families, you are completely delusional.  We are engaged in a struggle that will not easily be put to rest.  There is an urgi-care center, a surgery center, and a medical mall being built less than two miles from our walls. 

This, my last regular WMC blog post, is directed to the 15 or 20 people who are falsely being lured into believing that those of us who have embraced this nearly Utopian philosophy will permit you to run rough shod over our healing environment.  We will not.  The 600 other employees who do get it WILL WIN, and I will not let go unless or until I am no longer in a position to influence our work.  Our search committee has been charged to look for a replacement that also embraces this vision.

Two Days in Conference

The drive was pleasant enough.  Even though it began at about the same time that the birds started their morning serenades, the sun was out, clouds were nonexistent, and the road was relatively abandoned with only a few patrol cars positioned to keep me attuned to the necessity to continue to embrace all practices of good citizenship. 

The appearance of the meeting room is pleasant enough.  The coffee is a cross between Maxwell House and Starbucks, and, thank goodness the pots have kept it hot because the room is a typical conference room. It's freezing.  I'm not sure what the instructions say in the "How to Run a Conference" manual, but every time I attend one of these, I regret the fact that my Northface Parka wasn't in my fake leather, rolling duffel bag. 

Why are we here?  We are here with our partners from Walter Reed Army Medical Center to put together all of our plans for our breast research project from 2010 thru 2015.  Don't get me wrong, there have been plenty of Ole Boy jokes about just being happy to still be a participating member of civilization on this planet seven years from now, but generally, it is a planning session designed to discipline us to continue to challenge our vision, a vision that will be valid for years to come.

As my eyes grow increasingly stronger, well, not my eyes, but my vision, it is clear that we had created goals in 2001 that were extremely far reaching, but not completely fund-able.  Fortunately, we have come a very long way since then.  When we first started this work, a terabyte of data storage cost about $1 million dollars.  Now, you can buy 2 terabytes of storage for $720 or less.  When we started, we wanted to do genomic and proteomic analysis on all of our donated samples.  That goal was millions of dollars out of our reach.  Now, the cost has come down dramatically enough that it is feasible and possible for us to do this. 

So, were we too visionary?  As it turns out, we were not.  The rest of the world was not visionary enough.  Dr. Craig Shriver, our principal investigator on this project, brilliantly designed it around risk reduction, a biorepository (tissue bank), extensive molecular analysis, biomedical informatics and clinical care.  Obviously, clinical care was the key goal, but, most importantly, cures, early detection, and amazing new diagnostic discoveries were the fundamental priorities. 

Can we convert this research into something that is not only cutting edge, but revolutionary in terms of results?  Yes we can, and yes it will be.   The hundreds of people involved with the Clinical Breast Care Project have literally dedicated their lives to improving all of our lives by helping those individuals who will face this disease either from a genomic abnormality or an environmentally generated source. 

So, excuse me while I finish my lunch and dive deeply back into these discussions. 

"Pass the ketchup, please, my mushroom tastes a little woodsie." 

Get Your Hips on Route 56

In case you ever hear someone ask, "Windber?," we've complied a short list of attributes that have become part of our landscape over the past decade. Windber's ascendancy to the top tier of national hospitals and research centers this size and scope has been an amazing journey. With nearly 600 employees and a payroll of more than $21 Million, not acknowledging our Healing Hillside has become more and more difficult for even those oblivious narcissists who have ignored us for 100 years.

We are closing in on $3 M of successful fund raising activities being lead by Attorney Timothy Leventry and our Foundation office. These funds will be used for a new Emergency and expanded OB departments, and we are thrilled to report that the two highest operational income producing fiscal years in the hospital's 100+ year history are now "in the bag." These funds have enabled us to begin a massive installation of an entirely new computer system. The research institute also has nearly $20 M in the pipeline for significant research projects over the next two years with $10 M more pending for the third year.

With the announcement of the breast coil on our 3T MRI, WMC continues our bent of embracing innovative hospital care and treatment. As one of the first hospitals in the nation to adapt the patient-centered Planetree philosophy which pays particular attention to the environment in which patients pursue wellness, we now have clinical partners like the Cleveland Clinic along with us on this journey. The decision to promote the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Heart Disease Reversal started us on our track to integrative medicine which uniquely places us internationally. Reiki, drum circles, labyrinths, pet, aroma, music, and massage therapy, accupuncture and energy medicine are just a few of the modalities offered here at Windber.

The research made possible by the opening of the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center, one of the most innovative facilities of its kind in the United States, just adds further evidence of Windber’s uniqueness, and leadership there has literally opened the doors to numerous programs for woman's health that will further establish our commitment to this segment of our population.

We have successfully rallied important legislative support for far reaching projects here in cooperation with local, regional, state and national government through co-operation and support from Congressman John Murtha, Governor Ed Rendell and other public leaders. With the infusion of public contributions these include but are not limited to the a state-of-the-art HealthStyles Wellness Center, numerous research initiatives, the breast center and WindberPlace.

WMC has received top awards for excellence from AARP, numerous Planetree and Telly awards, was the first institution to win the coveted Fierce Healthcare Award for Hospital Innovation, and has been recognized by Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and numerous other media leaders.

If that's not enough . . . our HCHAPS scores were in the top 10% of the country, infection rates among the lowest, at 1%, readmission rates are low, lengths of stay are below average, and employee turnover is some of the lowest in the business. People like us because we like people.

The Bridge to Somewhere

The other night I was watching PBS and saw a show about the bridges of Pittsburgh.  As a kid there was a bridge between downtown and the North Side.  When I looked it up on Wikipedia, I found the following story:  The Fort Duquesne Bridge is a steel tied arch bridge that spans the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh. It was colloquially referred to as the Bridge to Nowhere because it was constructed from 1958-1963 by PennDOT, and never opened for traffic until October 17, 1969.

When we look at our own personal journeys, it is sometimes very interesting to trace the origins and destinations of our bridges; where they have been and where they could be or more importantly where they are actually taking us.  The journey always has a series of connectors, confluences, and mergers that were as unpredictable and unimaginable as could ever have been conceived. 

Sometimes those connectors were mentors; sometimes partners, sometimes friends, but more often than not, those people who have had the most influence on our progress and on moving us toward our goals have been people who did not like, support, or believe in our work, our mission, or our dreams. 

Many times, our inspiration came from the power of those people who were most passionately against us than from those who supported us. Bob Strauss in his e-How blog writes:  Like duels and opera hats, the concept of mortal enemies has fallen by the wayside in modern times, and more’s the pity. The fact is, everyone can use a good mortal enemy: there’s nothing like the possibility of being waylaid, fisticuff-ed, and tied to a railroad trestle to make a guy just glad to be alive.