What a lovely thing to open Modern Healthcare (June 26 edition) to see the article (below) by Editorial Director Chuck Lauer highlighting the Healing Trust's work on loving care and our new book, Sacred Work - Planting Cultures of Radical Loving Care in America.
Chuck Lauer is one of the great positive influences in American healthcare. His weekly columns emphasize the best in each of us and call us to be even better. Chuck understands that the way to promote change is to emphasize the positive and to appeal to our better angels. That's why I call his writing and speaking, "Lauer Power." Read on...
June 26, 2006
Delivering 'loving care'
Chapman tells execs: hospitals need to give patients personal attention
>>By Charles S. Lauer, Vice President-Publishing/Editorial Director – Modern Healthcare>
>I've known Erie Chapman now for a quarter-century, since the time he was the chief executive of Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. It has been a privilege. Everyone at that hospital seemed to have a story about Erie. People told me he used to work in various jobs around the hospital so that he could get a feel for the conditions in which his employees worked. I was also told he took great care to make sure his people were rewarded for their hard work and commitment to the hospital. Most importantly, he was totally focused on the needs of patients. In his mind any patient entering his hospital should be treated like a VIP, with love. That's how he thought and operated then, and the way he still works. Care of patients is everything. Healthcare, he believes, isn't a money machine or a playground to try out the latest fad in management techniques. It should be a place where patients come to be helped, and the only response by the provider should be radical loving care. What a career Erie Chapman has had. He has been a trial lawyer, a talk-show host and an author. At 33, he became CEO of Riverside Hospital in Toledo, Ohio, before becoming top dog at Riverside Methodist. He was the founding president and CEO of the nine-hospital U.S. Health Corp. (now OhioHealth) also in Columbus. From there he became the chief operating officer of the publicly traded InPhyNet Medical Management Co. in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and the CEO of Baptist Hospital System in Nashville. Today he is the CEO of the Baptist Healing Hospital Trust in Nashville. He has also written two books. The first was Radical Loving Care, now in its sixth printing, and a new one, Sacred Work: Planting Cultures of Radical Loving Care in America. Chapman writes that many healthcare executives have lost their way, and that the whole notion of charitable care is out of balance. "In hospitals, technology and business have become monstrous gods crushing first-line workers and converting them, in the eyes of many leaders, into automatons or units of expense," he writes in Sacred Work. He cites the results of a survey by the American College of Healthcare Executives, as reported in this magazine (Jan. 9, p. 8). Hospital CEOs overwhelmingly (67%) stated that "financial challenges" were their No. 1 worry, while "quality" ranked fifth (23%) and "patient safety" sixth (20%). "The mission of `loving care' for patients did not make the list at all. It was simply not on the radar screen for healthcare leaders even though widespread review shows that: 1) Loving care is part of most mission statements, and 2) Hospitals routinely fail in its delivery and pay little attention to it in training and in meetings. No wonder we fear the treatment we and our loved ones might receive should we have to don a patient gown." Chapman feels that most hospitals have fallen into a rut. With tongue in cheek, he suggests that most hospitals should replace their mission statement with these lines or something akin to: "Welcome to St. General's Hospital. Got a problem? We'll take our best shot at fixing it. You can stay in one of our rooms at a nightly rate higher than any hotel in the country. Note: There may be a stranger in the room with you, and we are not responsible for any noises he or she might make. We will decide what you wear to bed. Note: Don't even think about wearing your own pajamas. Do expect to lie on a stretcher for a long time in a long hallway half-naked. Enjoy the fluorescent ceiling lights. We expect to get paid as much as we can for what we do to you. If we make a mistake, we'll try again -- and we'll charge you again, too. If you're unhappy, talk to our customer relations people in the basement. Although they may have no power, authority, or medical training, they will probably smile. Alternatively, you can sue us. Have a nice day and night." One story from Chapman's book illustrates what he means by the kind of care that's the opposite of the above. An administrative fellow at Riverside Methodist in 1992 was walking by a patient's room in a critical-care unit. Tubes were flowing into her, and a monitor let out a steady beep. "I noted `Lewis' written on the name card near her door," said the fellow, Bev Smith. "Although the woman didn't seem to hear, I chatted with her a moment, something about the weather, I think, then quietly left the room with a wave of goodbye. For 15 nights I stopped by Ms. Lewis' room to say hello for a moment. Ms. Lewis never moved or opened her eyes in response. On the 16th evening, I was in a bit of a hurry, so I waved a quick, `Hello, Ms. Lewis' as I sped past the door, only to hear a faint `hello' drift from the room. I rapidly retraced my steps, walked into Ms. Lewis's room, and looked down into a smiling pair of blue eyes. Ms. Lewis reached for my hand and said in a whisper, `I waited for you. Every evening I waited for you to stop in my room and talk to me. It made the nights bearable. Thank you, young lady.' " In Sacred Work Chapman lays out a road map of practical advice to help executives and providers look at their lives, and it might lead some to rededicate themselves to a sense of mission in healthcare. It's about time someone did. Re-find the power of caring.
