“Then just quit,” Priscilla told me when I said I didn’t want to go to Rotary that fateful night in 1995. “What?” I replied. “If you’re not going to go without an extremely valid reason then you won’t give your 100% to the Rotary Club – and we need committed members, because we are doing important things and need dedicated people … so if you are not dedicated and committed, do us all a favor and quit.” “Well …, “ I thought, “that was a bit harsh.” But as I learned since that time – she was so right. If something – be it my job, church, community event, whatever obligation I have committed myself to – I feel is a priority, then I will give 100%.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been deep into the foundations of what made Iowa Specialty Hospital. (I’ve been with leaders at Studer Conferences.) I spent a lot of this time reflecting on our journey and how we ebbed and flowed throughout the last dozen “official” journey years. For those who were around back then, we used to do things differently. “Steve, back in the beginning, what did you do differently?” Glad you asked: we’d lock the doors at meetings at the times they were supposed to start – if you arrived late, you were absent. We required “mandatory” – unless you had a doctor’s note, your attendance was required at department meetings, QEMs, etc. in order to keep your job. We took a page from Priscilla’s handbook, “We need committed members because we are doing important things and need dedicated people … so if you are not dedicated and committed, do us all a favor and quit” …
“That’s really harsh, Steve; you know sometimes the priorities you set aren’t the same as ours.” OK, when we put together our department meetings and QEMs, we design them to ultimately improve the quality of the service we provide, be it nursing, nutrition services, or patient access. So if our priority is to provide the highest quality to the patient, what is yours again?
Bottom line, if we want to be the best … the absolute best at what we do, we need to all (myself included) jump on the bandwagon and hold ourselves accountable to always (ALWAYS) do the right thing. Whether it’s attendance, answering the phone correctly, saying “hi” in the hallways … whatever it takes to make this the best place to work, the best place to practice, and ultimately the best place to receive care, each and every one of us needs to commit or recommit to being our personal best.
-Steve Simonin, President & CEO
