Proud To Call It Home

“We dance even if there’s no radio. We drink at funerals. We talk too much and laugh too loud and live too large and, frankly, we’re suspicious of others who don’t.” - Chris Rose, 1 Dead in Attic, 2006

New Orleans celebrates 296 years this year, thanks to the dogged persistence of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, who must have been somewhat mad when he stood on the banks of the Mississippi River and declared that the city would be cut from the mosquito infested wilderness. Come hell and a whole lot of high water, New Orleans and the people who love her have been rejoicing in the preposterous ever since! 

People ask me all the time, “What’s so special about New Orleans?”  After all, the city has more than its fair share of poverty, crime, corruption, heat, humidity and mosquitoes, right?  So what’s the big deal?  The big deal boils down to this:  It’s the people;  more to the point, it is the emotional connection the people of New Orleans have to the city itself. Everything else that’s special about the Big Easy flows from that…the music, the food, the spirit, the connection people have to one another, the sheer exuberance of the place.  Actor John Goodman once said, “There’s an incomplete part of our chromosomes that gets repaired or found when we hit New Orleans. Some of us just belong here.”  Remember the horrific pictures that came out of Katrina?  Almost a million people evacuated the city, but despite the overwhelming devastation, the minute the National Guard opened the city back up, almost a million people came back, joined hands and rebuilt the city they love. 

OK, so Bob loves New Orleans, that doesn’t come as a surprise to any of you.  But what does that have to do with running a hospital?  Here’s the link:  To have a truly exceptional hospital with exceptional people providing exceptional care, we have to be emotionally connected to what we do.  It is why I say what we do is a mission, not a job.  It is an opportunity, every day, every patient, every encounter to have a life changing impact on another human being.  It is about our connection to each other and to the history of our hospital and those who served before us.  It is understanding and embracing that this hospital is special and what we do is special and therefore that makes us special, too.

There is something we say to one another down in “N’Awlins":  “Be a New Orleanian…wherever you are.”  Carry the city, the spirit, the energy, the connection with you wherever you go.  So here’s what I say to you today:  “Be a healthcare hero, wherever you are.” ~ Bob Prehn

What I Learned Hanging Out in Bars...

“Light is the task where many share the toil “- Homer

I wasn’t always a psychologist and hospital administrator.  Like many of us, I held a variety of jobs through high school, college and graduate school…I cut grass as a youngster, played in a band in high school and was a DJ and bartender during my college years.  When I moved to Baton Rouge to start graduate school at LSU, I got a part-time job as a bartender and weekend DJ at a local club called “Dax.”  The absentee club owners owned clubs from Houston to Jacksonville Florida and depended on the team in Baton Rouge to manage the club for them.  Over time, the unofficial management team duties fell to 4 of us:  Terry was food service/day manager, Steven & Brian were bar/night managers and I was bar manager/DJ. 

 One day, Mark & Bobby who owned the club announced they were putting it up for sale.  Figuring we were already pretty much running the place ourselves (and being young, fearless and somewhat foolish!), we bought the place.  What we quickly found out was running a bar & restaurant is a complex business involving inventory management, point-of-service tracking, personnel management, payroll, team building, security, marketing, financial management, marketing and a hundred other tasks.  We also found out that it was a lot of FUN, mostly because we figured out how to work as a team and leverage each owner’s skill set:  Terry was great with inventory, payroll, personnel, legal & regulatory issues; Steven & Brian were naturals behind the bar, leading the other bartenders and entertaining the guests and I enjoyed bartending for the happy hour crowd and would move over to the DJ booth later in the evening.  Management was a fulltime job for us full time students but we made it work, enjoyed the times and were successful because we shared the load. 

And we see that every week here at my hospital both on the floor and in the many “Shout Outs” each week in our in-house newsletter:  When we pull together as a team, the load each of us carries individually is lightened.  We provide better care, patient satisfaction improves and we enjoy our time together more.

So, here are some questions to ask yourself: 

• In what ways are you personally reaching out each day to support those around you?
• How can you utilize your teammates the next time you are feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities?
• How can you relieve someone’s burden by reaching out to offer assistance, even before being approached?

~ Bob Prehn

The Power of The Team

“With an enthusiastic team you can achieve almost anything.” - Tahir Shah

My good friend, Steve Labens, down in Baton Rouge, has a scrap of paper and two tickets framed on the wall in his den.  The scrap of paper says: “If Nick Saben stays, LSU National Champs in 2004.”  The unusual thing is that Steve wrote that prediction 4 years earlier, in 2000, sitting in his truck at Tiger Stadium after a game.  The two tickets are from the National Championship game in 2003. 

                                           

Nick Saben had a vision.  When Saben interviewed with LSU in November 1999 for the head coach position, he told them that LSU would win the SEC Championship within 3 years and compete for the National Championship shortly thereafter.  He had a 5-year plan to accomplish those goals.  He executed the plan and achieved the vision, even a little ahead of schedule. The LSU Tigers became the #1 team in college football in 2003, something that had not happened since 1958.  It shows the power of a vision supported by an enthusiastic team.

And I see the same spirit at my current hospital, The Bradley Center.  In 2011, we developed a strategic plan to grow the census from the existing average of 24 patients a day, expand our patient base and return The Bradley Center to profitability after 7 years of losses.  And the signs of our success are everywhere:  Census has grown to an average of 70 patients a day, TBC is profitable for the first time since 2007, and quality & patient satisfaction are improving.  Our Crisis Stabilization Unit is showcased by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities as “the best such program in the state of Georgia” and the CSU team recently received the first ever Team Daisy Award.  But there’s much left to do:  Sustain the improvements in quality and patient satisfaction, relocate & expand our geropsychiatric program, revision our current CBHU into a dedicated Psychiatric Intensive Care unit, relocate & expand our psychiatrists’ outpatient clinic and probably a dozen other challenges we haven’t even envisioned yet.   

And I remain confident because, as Tahir Shah says:  “With an enthusiastic team you can achieve almost anything.”  ~  Bob Prehn, Administrative Director