Row the Boat

I realize that I may have offended some really good folks with my post earlier this week ("The Caducean Ceiling"), and that was not my intention.  Health care is incredibly complex, and in order for us to solve some of health care's biggest problems, everyone in health care has to be working together.  Clinicians (physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals) and administrative staff have to work collaboratively to deliver the best outcomes to patients.  We all bring something unique to the team, whether it is a different expertise, skill set, or even a different perspective.  No single individual can do it all, and we rely upon each other to bring our best to work every day, so that our patients can benefit - because that's why we are all here, or at least it should be why we are all here.  I have always believed that if patients are to come before profits, then clinicians need to have a seat in the board room. 

I don't claim to be an expert in the non-clinical aspects of the business of health care.  I don't even want to be an expert - there are individuals with the education, training, and experience who can do a much better job at that than I will ever be able to do.  My point in the previous post is that clinicians can and should be able to learn enough of the business aspects to be able to work closely with their colleagues on the administrative side in partnership.  There are many great organizations that have come to appreciate this point, developing a model called dyad leadership, in which clinicians and non-clinicians are paired together to lead a specific service line, department, or organization.  It's an incredibly effective model that takes advantage of the different skill sets of clinicians and administrators.

Which brings me to another one of my recommended books for this year.  A few years ago, our CEO recommended a book by the author Daniel James Brown called The Boys in the Boat.  The book tells the story of nine Americans who overcame incredible odds to win the Gold Medal in Men's Rowing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  Brown's website describes the book as follows:

Against the grim backdrop of the Great Depression, they reaffirmed the American notion that merit, in the end, outweighs birthright. They reminded the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together. And they provided hope that in the titanic struggle that lay just ahead, the ruthless might of the Nazis would not prevail over American grit, determination, and optimism.

Row the boat together.  It's an incredible appropriate metaphor for what needs to happen in hospitals today.  Everyone pulls their weight.  Everyone pulls together.  Everyone rows the boat.