One of my favorite rounding questions this year is the question - what are you the most proud of either personally, professionally or both? For most people they’re most proud of something to do with their families, and I love to hear the pride in their voice as they share the accomplishments of their kids. On the professional side, it is usually pride in knowing that they have impacted patients in a positive way, and that they get to help people. I often write about the impact that we make in healthcare. Sometimes it may seem small to us, but the ripple we leave is significant in the lives of our patients.
I often follow up on patient complaints personally as I like to make connections with the patients, and even though I am not a direct care provider I love knowing that I can make a difference too. I recently had this opportunity when one of my favorite gift givers called to tell me that her friend was disappointed in her experience at our facility. The actual patient has doctored in Mason City for most of her life, but would like to switch care and didn’t have a great experience when she came to our facility. I had the pleasure of talking to the patient and going over the process breakdowns that lead to her frustration. I loved hearing that one of the lab techs that took care of her in the ER recommended that she establish care with Abby Young, DNP as she thought she would be a good fit for her. I had scheduling set this up, and she has established care and is great hands. I often share with patient complaints that we can’t fix what we don’t know about and we have great people who care deeply about our patients, but sometimes the processes around providing that care fail. I love getting to help fix those processes. So this week, I challenge you to think about professionally what you are the most proud of and share it with your co-workers or family. The “why” you do what you do. I know I am most proud to work with an incredible group of people who are positively impacting patient lives every day!
