Thursday, August 29, 2019

What I did on my summer vacation 2019

It’s important from time to time to spend time with family and to recharge your battery by resting and enjoying things other than work. So, this week I’ve been away, and I want to share a bit of what I have been up to.

Every morning, after making my coffee, I have spent an hour or so reviewing our Baldrige application. I know, I know, this doesn’t sound like leaving work behind, but our site visit is in a few weeks and reading the application makes me very proud of all that we have done using our core competency of redesigning care to move us closer to our vision.

I have also had a good time playing golf with my wife, Tracey, and going out to dinner. I have enjoyed jogging along the harbor where I ran into some ducks (almost literally).


But the highlight of the week so far was going with my son, Mike, to see Breaking Benjamin. Thanks to the band’s relationship to the GBMC SAFE program (see my previous blog post here) and the kindness of Ashley McAree, RN, FNE-A/P, SANE-A, human trafficking liaison, with GBMC’s SAFE program, we met the members of the band and watched the concert from the stage after being invited by Breaking Benjamin’s lead singer, Ben Burnley! This has really been an excellent vacation!



Career Growth for Our Great Nurses

We are in a nursing shortage. Our population is aging, and we need more nurses. Nursing is a very demanding profession that requires selflessness and commitment, and the 1,200+ nurses across the GBMC HealthCare System exhibit these characteristics every day.

Our nurses stay with the GBMC Healthcare System for an average of 11 years. Under the leadership of our Chief Nursing Officer, Dr. JoAnn Ioannou, GBMC has created new career pathways in nursing to make it easier for a nurse to spend her or his whole career with GBMC.

In September, we are offering our nurses two internal networking events, hosted by the Workforce Planning Committee and our Human Resources Department, that will be an opportunity for nurses to explore different internal career pathways.

Matt Ayers, RN, PHR, Director of Talent Acquisitions for GBMC HealthCare recently sat down to tell us more about the upcoming networking events, slated for Tuesday, Sept. 10th and Thursday, Sept. 19th from 7:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. in the Civiletti Conference Center. Click here to listen!

Congratulations Dr. Sunness!

I want to congratulate Dr. Janet S. Sunness, Medical Director of the Richard E. Hoover Low Vision Rehabilitation Services, who recently achieved the major milestone of having treated 5,000 patients. Dr. Sunness is a prolific clinician-researcher in maculopathy and has provided significant contributions to her field, most specifically in the understanding of and defining parameters in clinical trials for the “dry” form of advanced age-related macular degeneration. Dr. Sunness expressed her thanks to GBMC, the Department of Ophthalmology, and The Richard E. Hoover Low Vision Rehabilitation Services for “being a warm home for me, that has allowed me to help patients clinically and with research.” Actually, we should be thanking Dr. Sunness for being a fantastic clinician and researcher and for helping to improve her patients’ quality of life!

Labor Day

As our country celebrates the hard work of the American people this Labor Day holiday, many of us will enjoy a three-day weekend. But, many of my colleagues will be working. Please let me thank all the phenomenal people of the GBMC HealthCare System for their labor towards our vision. Thank you!

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