Much to be Thankful For

Thursday is Thanksgiving and I have a lot to be thankful for. I am very grateful that I will be with my wife and children on Thanksgiving – they are the loves of my life.

I have a lot to be thankful for at GBMC, too. Last Friday, I was on a panel sponsored by the Baltimore Business Journal, discussing health care reform. While I was on the stage and listening to the conversation, I reflected on how lucky I am to have so many people in the GBMC family focused on our vision of being the healthcare system where everyone, every time, gets the care that we would want for our own loved ones. Our system has embraced the need to change. We are focused on our four aims because they are what we want for everyone getting care and for everyone delivering care – better health, better care, and lower cost with more joy for those providing the care. We are not lamenting change or struggling to hold on to the status quo. We are in action because that is what our community and our country need us to do! 

I was also very proud on Monday of this week when we hosted Carmela Coyle, the President of the Maryland Hospital Association and other leaders of the MHA at our GBMA Hunt Valley office. Our colleagues had come to learn about the transformation of our company, our accountable care organization, and how we were implementing the patient-centered medical home concept.  With the State’s new Medicare waiver, the MHA will be convening hospitals to help them transform toward managing the health of a population.  I again realized how much I had to be thankful for. 

So let me list just a few of those things here:

• The GBMC HealthCare Board of Directors who had the courage in 2010 to set a new course for our company
• The incredible GBMC Volunteer Auxiliary that is celebrating its 50th Anniversary and is made up of people who give of themselves to help others 
• Our phenomenal medical staff – because of their capabilities (once again GBMC had the most Top Docs of any community hospital in Maryland), their hard work, and their dedication our system does many things that cannot be done by others
• GBMC’s wonderful nurses – they are the core of our organization. Our nurses are smart, tireless and giving. Their work in the last year at improving our patient safety and service has been remarkable.
• Our nursing support technicians who are the face and heart of GBMC to so many patients in our hospital
• The nurse practitioners and physician assistants that work so hard to deliver exceptional care to our patients
• All of the rest of GBMC’s fantastic clinicians: therapists, laboratory personnel, and other technicians who use their expertise to improve clinical outcomes
• GBMC non-clinical personnel: from managers to patient access reps to billing personnel to food service workers and environmental service workers and everyone else who goes above and beyond for those we serve
• Gilchrist Hospice Care – our hospice along with Gilchrist Greater Living set a very high standard for patient-centeredness and the rest of our system learns from them every day
• The GBMC Foundation and its staff – where would we be without our excellent fundraising team?
• The GBMC campus – we are blessed to have such a beautiful environment for healing
• Our patients – they come to us for help and they show their gratitude even when we don’t get it perfectly right
• The staff at Einstein Bagels on the third floor of the hospital who make me smile every morning

I could make the list much longer - we really have a lot to be thankful for. Please enjoy Thanksgiving with your families, and Happy Hanukkah to all those in our GBMC family who celebrate the Festival of Lights.