April 2012
9 posts
Just for a moment
An ancient story describes a traveler seeking a spiritual teacher. Entering a village, he inquires about the teacher’s whereabouts. A villager, pointing in the direction of a funeral, says “you will recognize him as the one wearing the multicolored turban.” Nearing the funeral, he notices everyone wearing a multicolored turban.
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“How could this be?” he thinks to himself. As the...
More is magic
I travel through daily life protected by a veil masking the unforeseen that might befall my loved ones and me. Unfortunately, the veil temporarily lifted during a single week in December when my wife entered my office, shaken, after a mass was discovered during a routine exam; days later, I received a call that my daughter, an avid cyclist, sustained a concussion requiring a two day...
What "connects" with you? Let me know!
Health care was very different when I was a young medical resident in the 1970s. Frankly, many policies and procedures were designed for the convenience of physicians and clinicians. Health care administrators decided what worked best for their organizations and just assumed that patients would figure out how to navigate the system.
I was never comfortable with that outlook even at the start of my...
Navigation
I celebrated my 60th birthday by biking with a friend in the Tucson Sonoran desert. The work of a CEO, like many jobs, can be consuming and stressful. Surrounded by towering 200 year old saguaro cacti with oddly human profiles, I pondered my lack of preoccupation with “life balance.”
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For many years, I attempted to “balance” family, work, friends and personal time. Having maintained...
Honoring Choices -- Having the Conversation
My mother, of blessed memory, died peacefully at home at age 60 of progressive ovarian cancer. She died in 1984 according to her wishes, surrounded by loved ones in the familiar intimacy of her home. Fortunately, my mother discussed with us her desires and documented them in a “Living Will” prior to her death. Characteristic of how she lived, she took good care of her loved ones by sharing...
Exquisite attention
A Zen saying declares, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. A teacher recently appeared.
Gary Gibson, an access assistant at Park Nicollet Clinic’s 3850 building, recently taught me about the “patient experience.” Gary and his colleagues are Park Nicollet’s “ambassadors of good will.” Helping people in and out of our buildings, they create...
Getting Older
My father, age 87, is a retired rabbi. He continues to deliver sermons during the Jewish High Holidays. This year he described his thoughts about aging in a sermon entitled “Getting Older.” He cites a poem, “Written by a Crabby Old Woman”, which I found applicable to the patient and family experience. I took the liberty of using my name in the poem so I would hear the crabby old woman speaking...
The cost curve
I received an email recently from one of our physicians expressing frustration about the growing number of patients who were unable to afford his recommendations. His patients either a) didn’t have insurance, b) were about to lose their insurance, or c) had high deductibles.
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The problems our colleague is experiencing provide a tiny glimpse of the impact of what I call the “cost curve” –...
Pay it forward
The film, “Pay it Forward, depicts young Trevor McKinney, engaged in an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. Trevor must create an opportunity to make a positive difference in the world. Trevor conjures the notion of not “paying back” a favor, but “paying it forward.” He intends to repay one good deed, by generating several new ones on behalf of three new...
