Journal of Sacred Work

"Many [healthcare executives] simply don’t want to face up to the reality of the patient experience in their facilities." – Chuck Lauer, former publisher, Modern Healthcare

    During his many years as publisher of Modern Healthcare, Chuck Lauer (see photo) provided a positive voice in the hospital world. His voice is still strong through his weekly column in this influential magazine. In an editorial in the May 28 issue, however, you could feel his frustration with hospitals leaking through.   
   "Lately, the only comments I have heard from people treated in hospitals are negative," he wrote. "Providers tell me that the "patient is our customer," and then when I talk to people who have been patients in those hospitals they regale me with horror stories…"

   Mr. Lauer is reporting the truth. If you want to be treated like a second class citizen, go to a doctor’s office. If you want to be treated like a third class citizen, check into a hospital.
   Medical care may be more sophisticated today. But, from a human standpoint, hospital care remains abominable in most organizations.
   Chuck Lauer knows the reason for this – and so do you. "I think we may have forgotten why we got into this business of taking care of people," Lauer writes. I wish I could argue with him. But, as a thirty-year veteran of healthcare leadership, I can only agree.
   The government is now trying to force hospital CEOs to pay attention by collecting data on patient satisfaction and proposing to publish it. Predictably, lots of these CEOs are now scrambling around to do what they should have done before the government acted.
   The main way to create change is not a complicated concept. Hospital leaders need to take care of the
people who are take care of people. If they want first line staff to give great care, than they must set the example by giving great care to every employee. When I speak at hospitals around the country, I say these kinds of things. Leaders nod their heads. Yet with rare exceptions – Parrish Medical Center, St. Joseph Hospital and Mercy Gilbert Hospital are three Healing Hospitals that immediately come to mind – most leaders do absolutely nothing. It’s a national outrage and it’s time for patients and their family members to become much more proactive about this.
   Yes, it’s time for a revolution. Reluctantly, due to the inaction of most hospital leaders, I concede that the revolution may have to be led by patients.
   If you receive poor care in a hospital, don’t just write the CEO, schedule an appointment with him or her (unfortunately, it’s still too often a "him.") If you receive promises for improvements, follow up to see if anything really changes.
   What has this strident message got to do with loving care? Everything. The voice of Love calls out to leaders at every level to live the mission and values they say matter to them. When leaders don’t live mission, they are guilt of mission fraud.
  Let’s listen to Mr. Lauer. It’s time for leaders to exit their fancy offices and get out on the floors. It’s time for them to support their employees in giving the care their own mission statement calls for. There’s no time to waste. Down the hallway, lying on gurneys under harsh fluorescent lights, America’s patients are suffering. And they are waiting, wondering who, if anyone, will help them.

-Erie Chapman