Holiday stress? Remember your big rocks

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It’s holiday season. Are you stressing or relaxing? Are you hosting or bringing a dish to someone’s house? Are you braving the highways or airports? Are you questioning whether you bought the right gifts canstockphoto11846362 (1) holiday stressfor all the right people? Or trying to figure out when you can possibly take time to do gift shopping. Are you arguing with family over something that later you’ll decide was stupid? So many ways to be stressed at this time of year.

And so many ways to be with people we love. On business calls this week I’ve talked with people anxiously waiting for their college age kids to return home for their holiday break, people getting ready to have housefuls of out of town relatives with them for the next week, and others who are taking their family on a ski trip for the holidays.

For me, it’s all about being with loved ones. There will be the annual Schade Family Christmas Sleepover this weekend with my two daughters and their husbands and what I fondly call the “Fab Four” – my four grandkids who range in ages from 2 to 6 years old. Yes, it will be chaotic, but fun.

There will be the Christmas day dinner at my daughter’s house an hour away with her in-law’s family. It is her first time hosting everyone on Christmas and her stress is building. 15 adults and 6 kids for dinner. She works a 12-hour shift as a nurse practitioner on Christmas Eve so she’s trying to figure out when she will get everything done and ready. We’ll get there in time to help before everyone else arrives and she and her husband can delegate any task to us that they want to.

My holiday gift shopping is done. I subscribe to the “keep it simple” approach. It’s too easy to go overboard. For each grandkid, there will be one big present to unwrap. Then each pair of siblings will get an “experience”. Choice of more gymnastics or swim lessons for one family. Annual zoo membership for the other. As one of my daughters said to me a few years ago – get them experiences, they have plenty of toys.

The stockings hung at our house will be from nana and papa, not Santa. Continue reading →

Give the gift of girl power

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Every day is a good day to encourage reading and learning. And every day is a good day to buy books for kids. The holiday season is a time when many of us are looking for book recommendations for the young canstockphoto20702129 (1) girl power booksones in our lives.

With four grandkids and six grand nieces and nephews, I buy a lot of kid’s books. Of these ten young people, six are girls. When looking at books for the girls, I’m particularly interested in finding ones that will inspire them and teach them to be strong, smart girls who can be and do anything they aspire to. And, of course, I like to encourage an interest in STEM fields.

A few of the books I’m looking forward to buying for my granddaughters when they are a little older:

  • Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, by Rachel Ignotofsky, highlights the contributions of women to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
  • Herstory: 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World, by Katherine Halligan, celebrates inspiring women who have changed the world.
  • Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, by Francesca Cavallo, is a collection of bedtime stories of extraordinary women both past and present, each told as a fairy tale.
  • She Persisted and She Persisted Around the World, by Chelsea Clinton, describe the struggles of 26 remarkable, diverse and tenacious women.

There is a great series by Andrea Beaty that I’ve already introduced to my oldest granddaughter who just turned six. I gave her Rosie Revere, Engineer last Christmas. The other two books in the series are Ada Twist, Scientist and Iggy Peck, Architect.  Rosie, Ada, and Iggy are friends who pursue their passions with persistence while celebrating and learning from their failures.

If you have young girls to shop for this holiday season, I hope you will consider one of these books. And if you are looking for organizations to support as you consider your year-end charitable contributions, take a look at Girls Inc. With local organizations in cities across the country they inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Their message couldn’t be any clearer.

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Physician satisfaction with EHRs

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I am a huge fan of Dr. Atul Gawande. Who isn’t? He is a surgeon, an author and one of the most insightful and influential physicians of our time. His books are best sellers and his articles in The New Yorker canstockphoto3914104 (1) physician computermagazine are widely read. He was recently named as CEO of the non-profit-seeking health care venture formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase to deliver better outcomes, satisfaction, and cost efficiency in care. He will be the opening keynote speaker at HIMSS19 in Orlando this coming February.

His books include Better, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, and The Checklist Manifesto. I gave one of his early books to all my IT leaders one holiday season. My tradition was to give them an insightful and inspiring book each year. Gawande’s books are clearly some of the best for health care leaders.

Gawande has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1998. His latest piece was titled “The Upgrade: Why Doctors Hate Their Computers”. It’s a long read but worth the time if you work in health IT and care about your physicians. Gawande describes the challenges of EHR’s from the front lines of medicine. He talks about the significant amount of time spent doing documentation after a patient visit and the loss of physician to patient connection with the computer competing for attention in the exam room.

In discussing physician burnout, he referenced Berkeley psychologist Christina Maslach’s work studying occupational burnout where she defined burnout as a combination of three distinct feelings – emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a sense of personal ineffectiveness. He noted that in 2014, 54%% of physicians reported at least one of the three symptoms compared to 46% three years earlier. He shadowed a scribe and talked with surgeons and primary care physicians on the impact of the EHR on their work and their time. He learned from a patient who works as a construction supervisor that others are also challenged in their work to make the necessary human connections. Continue reading →

Own your health

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That’s exactly what I did the past 6 months. And this week I graduated. From physical therapy that is. I’ve been cut loose. The next few months is all about me maintaining a daily discipline of stretches and canstockphoto15299929 (1) healthstrengthening exercises.

I first shared this journey in the post “Is there an app for that?” back in June. I also talked then about the importance of patient engagement and personalization.

I’m now around a 2-3 on the pain scale and closer to 2 most of the time. My physical therapist said if in a few months, I’m slipping back or feeling more pain I should get another prescription for more PT sessions from my PCP.

The stretches are much easier to make time for every day. There is short term gain plus a tangible benefit – I actually feel less pain. The strengthening exercises are harder to fit in, especially when I get busy or am travelling. With strengthening, there is no short term gain or tangible benefit – it’s all about the long term. Like going to the gym and doing weights.

The recent Fall ritual of raking leaves, bagging them, then carrying them to the curb led to a lot of pain. When I took care of my 2 ½ year old grandson and his 4-year-old sister recently for almost three days, all the lifting involved set me back. And I know the inevitable snow shoveling that is coming this winter will do so as well. My lower back muscles hurt just from all the coughing I’ve done the past 3 weeks with a bad chest cold.

My physical therapist says be sure to engage my core muscles at all these times and it won’t be so bad. I’m sure she’s right. I will try.

I am well armed with knowledge. I know what I need to do and how to do it. Will I slip backwards or continue to own it? Having lived with this low back and hip pain for years until it got so bad that I finally decided to get help, I know how bad it can be.

It’s now up to me. I need to continue to own it. As with any habit or exercise program, time will tell. Maybe an exercise tracking app or just an old-fashioned paper log is what I need.

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Widen the circle

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Thanksgiving is often that day when we gather with family and friends, eat too much, maybe argue over politics, watch a lot of football, and generally have a good time being in the presence of people we carecanstockphoto21096824 (1) starts with you about. It’s that day when families widen their circle, make room at an already crowded table for friends and friends of friends who have no family nearby to be with.

I remember the last several Thanksgivings well. They represent our growing family.

Two of them were in Ann Arbor on long distance “baby watch”. In 2012, I was on my own having just started a new CIO position at Michigan Medicine. I was anxiously awaiting the call from our daughter in California to say she’d gone into labor and that I should get a ticket and fly out. It was our first grandchild. The plan was to help her out for the first week when they came home from the hospital. A couple I had met at church invited me to join their family on Thanksgiving as I waited. Two years later our second grandchild was due in Boston. Our best friends in Ann Arbor graciously invited my husband and I to join their family for Thanksgiving dinner as we waited for that call.

2013 was the only time we had our family at our Ann Arbor house – they travelled from both coasts for Thanksgiving. We also celebrated our grandchild’s first birthday together that long holiday weekend. And for my football fan son-in-law who grew up wanting to play for the University of Michigan, I bought tickets for everyone to go to the Michigan-Ohio game at the big house. A year to remember!

Over the next few years we became part of our Boston area daughter’s big extended family of in-laws. Now that my husband and I live in New England again and our California daughter and son-in-law live nearby, we have all been welcomed into the Boston area clan at the holidays. This Thanksgiving we were again part of that family but on a smaller scale. Continue reading →

Making time to give back

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As I noted in my recent post on tips for business travelers, I’ve been on the road a lot lately. Some of that travel has been for what I call “give back time”. Over the years I’ve participated on various boards andcanstockphoto28010569 (1) giving back committees, volunteering my time to advance our industry.

But it’s not all about giving – I get plenty from it as well.

I’m in my sixth year on the AAMI board. For this second three-year term, I’ve also been a member-at-large on the executive committee which means an extra day of meetings twice a year and more materials to review beyond the core board work.

As part of the AAMI board I have had the opportunity to get to know a diverse set of senior leaders in the medical technology industry. This includes the CEO of Steris, the Chief Quality Officer of BD, the Global Product Security & Services Officer for Royal Philips, and the Director for Health Technology Management for the VA – just to name a few. There are several board members from provider organizations including physician and health technology management (HTM) leaders. Along with a healthcare CIO on the board, Pam Arora from Children’s Health in Dallas, I offer a health IT and CIO perspective. Different than the contributions that other members make.

As a board we learn from one another and help advance the mission of AAMI which is to lead global collaboration in the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. Continue reading →

The changing face of leadership

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Ayanna Presley, Sylvania Garcia, Veronica Escobar, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Deb Haaland, Sharice Davids, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, and Lauren Underwood.canstockphoto354515 (1) diversity

These are names you may not recognize now. But you will. They are some of the more than 100 women elected to the House of Representatives on November 6th. Women have never held more than 84 of the 435 house seats according to a November 8th Washington Post article by Mary Jordan – Record number of women heading to Congress.

Ayanna Presley is the first black congressperson elected from Massachusetts. Sylvania Garcia and Veronica Escobar are both from Texas and the first Latino women elected to the House of Representatives. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are the first Muslim women elected to the House. Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids are the first Native American women elected to the House; Sharice is the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in Kansas. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes is the youngest woman ever elected to the House at the age of 29.

Lauren Underwood is a 30-year-old nurse who will be the youngest black woman in Congress. In a district that is 86% white, she beat six men in the primary and unseated a four-term incumbent. Her campaign focused on healthcare.

Another woman to watch is Kyrsten Sinema. She now has a slight lead in the Arizona Senate race but it is still too close to call at the time of this writing. If she wins, she will be the first bisexual person elected to Congress.

Now that’s what I call a diverse group of determined women representing the next generation of leaders in Washington. Continue reading →

9 Tips for better business travel

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I have been travelling a lot for business during the last three weeks: Boston for a conference, New York City for meetings, Florida for client work, and now St. Louis and Washington D.C. as part of my industry canstockphoto888303 (1) business travelinvolvement and “giveback” work.  A colleague suggested that I share my tips for managing business travel. Here goes:

You can work anywhere: To reduce flying time and to keep options open for client meetings, I will opt to do a multiple city flight, instead of round trips  to be home for just one night. We can work anywhere, so why not work from a hotel room for a day?  However, this year I missed Halloween with my grandkids which I regret. Will try to avoid that next year!

Travel logistics – I really dislike making flight reservations and sifting through the options. I rely on my administrative support staff to handle as much of my travel arrangements as possible. I know there are apps that you can use to track it all but I’ve yet to adopt them. Once everything is confirmed, having a one-page itinerary with all the info for the trip I need is an extremely helpful reference.

Planning for the weather – You might be dealing with a 30+ degree difference in the temperature when travelling to multiple cities. I watch my weather app a few days in advance and think about clothes that will work with the weather changes. Then figure out what kind of outerwear I need for the coolest temps.

Packing – There’s no question that men have it easier than women when it comes to what clothes to pack. Men have almost a uniform that serves them for a few days – sports coat, slacks and a couple shirts or just one suit and different ties. Women need to create their own simple interchangeable uniform. Think basics and know that black is your friend (dress, skirt, slacks, jacket). You can always change it up with accessories. Then there are the shoes – go for comfort and 1-2 pairs that work with everything.

Paper files – Organizing your work is as important as packing the right clothes. Having most everything you need online or on your laptop means a lot less paper to carry these days. But make sure you have what you need either electronically or on paper to keep things moving while you are travelling. Continue reading →

12 more days – forward together

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Pipe bombs sent via U.S. mail to critics of the president have dominated the news cycle for two days. These targets include former presidents, a former vice president, a former secretary of state and acanstockphoto5429849 (1) vote congresswoman. The person or group behind this domestic terrorism is still unknown. But we all know we are living in an ugly, divisive time in the history of our country. What have we become?

As the midterms approach, the divisiveness of the past several years has increased. Can we ever come together again?

We all can make a choice on who we want to represent us. The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy yet women and black people did not have this right until many years later. And we know that gaining that right was a hard fight. Fast forward to 2018 and voter suppression is rampant in several states. This makes your vote all that more critical.

If you live in an early voting state, you can exercise your right to vote any day through November 6th. If you do not, then you need to make time to cast your vote on November 6th.

There are many organizations and initiatives focused on getting people out to vote. When We All Vote is a new, non-partisan not-for-profit organization bringing together people to focus on our rights and responsibilities to shape our democracy. As they say, when we all vote, we can change the world. The good news is that early voting states are showing very high turnouts compared to previous elections.

Remember that the presidential election in 2016 was decided by less than half of the eligible voters. There is no electoral college at play in the midterms. Every vote counts!

Two years ago, I was filled with optimism leading up to the presidential election yet disappointed beyond words with the results. But I wanted to be optimistic in the following days. I wanted to believe the divisiveness would end and our president would try to be a president for all people.

I reread my post “Forward together” from November 11, 2016 this week. My optimism has waned and for good reason in the past two years. But I will vote again in 11 days and continue to look to the future. I encourage you to do the same.

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When We All Vote

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Innovation or disruption?

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“You only call it a disruption because you didn’t create it – stop being disrupted, innovate.” That was just one of the messages in the opening keynote from Terry Jones at the fifth Annual Thought Leaders on Access Symposium (ATLAS) in Boston this week. His talk was titled “Turning Disruption OFF and Turning canstockphoto30429373 (1) innovationInnovation ON”.

As an entrepreneur with an impressive history, Terry Jones knows what he’s talking about. He is best known for founding Travelocity.com and serving as founding Chairman of Kayak.com. As consumers, we’ve experienced the disruptive innovations in the travel industry. As healthcare leaders, we were challenged by Terry to consider the innovations and disruptions yet to come in our industry.

ATLAS is a patient access conference for hospital and health system leaders sponsored by Kyruus for their customers and invited guests. Kyruus is a software firm that offers provider search, scheduling, and data management solutions to help health systems match patients with the right providers and enhance patient access enterprise-wide. This year’s theme was “Systemness. Ignited.” with excellent speakers on innovation and digital transformation in healthcare. The focus of the conference was on patient and consumer engagement. Health systems such as Banner Health and Piedmont Healthcare, leaders in transforming the patient experience, shared their stories.

It was inspiring to see so many healthcare leaders passionate about improving the patient experience. I’ve been in health IT management for decades and I was humbled to hear leaders from marketing, patient access, and innovation teams talk about getting things done in spite of roadblocks they sometimes face from IT. Continue reading →