BIDMC: True to its mission

Each week, on Monday, I blog about issues related to our healthcare system. The need for discussion on this issue should be apparent, even to members of Congress now. (I couldn't restrain myself.) And each day of each week, I search for possible solutions. I even have a category for health care victories and health care solutions. You can see in the category cloud there aren't many entries tagged with this category.

Maybe, it's my feeds. Maybe, it's the egregious nature of some of the abuses in our healthcare system, the suffering they create, the productivity they impeded that distracts me from seeing solutions. I don't find many solutions.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston may be an exception. It seems like it could be a hospital that remains true to its mission regardless of medicare/medicaid payment amounts or percentages or the ever-changing vicissitudes of co-pay, no-pay, denied-pay health insurance system.

I live in Iowa. I've never visited the hospital. Honestly, I hope I never need to, as well.  But, they would deliver stellar care in that event.

How do I know this hospital could be unique, true to its mission and my care would be stellar?

It's their leader, their CEO. He blogs at Running a Hospital.  I've read his blog for a few years, now. He blogs well, too, mixing in personal anecdotes and stories, as well as stories of successes and mistakes at their hospital, their challenges and he uses social media to share that story. He sometimes writes on the industry as a whole. He shares stories of how his hospital helps, not only with medical/health challenges, but also with life's challenges. He's a patient man it seems with weak people/competitors/organizations who need the crutch of hidden agendas. (Patience comes from strength, wisdom, discretion, perspective.)

That's the great thing about a blog. You get to know the author over time, your time, their time. Should I ever meet Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, I don't think I'll be surprised by much. Maybe how delightful it was to meet in person.

A leader leads. But an organization, a community, a nation...a hospital staff, we all get the leaders we deserve. Clearly, the staff there deserve a great leader.

His staff is very loyal to their shared mission of care, treatment and education for their patients, their staff and their community.  Very few hospitals and their patient care inspire letters and blog posts like this and this.

Too often we read of hospitals with a different culture, a different attitude, a different mission. So many it seems that the road less-traveled now is the road that leads a hospital to sustain its mission of care, treatment, education for its patients, its staff and its community.

I don't know how to solve every probem with our healthcare system. I know if we keep talking about it together we'll find a solution to all the problems. But one solution would be to clone/duplicate BIDMC, its staff, its leaders, its volunteers...

I know this isn't the only hospital like this. So, share your stories here of your hospital and community it supports and that supports it. And encourage them to blog and share their stories. We can create a community of solutions and role models, help each other find solutions.

Have a great week.

PS: Thanks, Mr. Levy for the time you spend blogging.

Comments

[Lachlan Forrow, MD]

Thanks, Zane. As a physician who has worked at BIDMC for 22 years, I can tell you that everything you write rings completely true.

Lachlan Forrow, MD
Director, Ethics and Palliative Care Programs
BIDMC
Harvard Medical School

[Paul Levy]

Wow, Zane! Thanks very much.