Move away from disease-care to make healthcare matter

by Lynn McVey When Jeff Daniels recently won his Emmy Award, he quoted American playwright Lanford Wilson who said, "Whatever you do with your career, make it matter and make it count." At my hospital's monthly orientation of new employees, I tell them something similar. I tell them what they have chosen to do is our most honored profession. I tell them no matter where they work in this hospital, they are a member of the team that takes care of sick people and saves lives. Can their non-healthcare friends say that? Nope. When you choose to work in healthcare, you do something that matters and that counts. For me, there is no more noble a career than healthcare. We are there to clean up the blood, confront grief-stricken family members, hold the hand of someone dying, congratulate an exhausted but happy new mom, soothe a frightened child, expose ourselves to virus and germs, and clean up vomit or worse. An accountant or waitress might ask why anyone, in their right mind, would enter this crazed profession. My answer is always the same. We had no choice. We are wired this way. I had the privilege and honor to speak at CHI/Optima's Leadership Retreat last week in Monterey, Calif. The patient-safety champion Robert Wachter, M.D., was a speaker. He analogized medical errors like this: 240,000 patients were killed last year by preventable medical errors. If healthcare was the aviation industry, that would equal five jumbo jets crashing each week. Would we even have an a...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs