The year that was
Let’s start with a joke. Stop me if you’ve heard this one:
A teacher is teaching History when he notices a student twirling a ruler between his fingers. He tells the kid to stop, as it’s distracting. The kid does.
A few minutes later, the kid is tapping his desk with the same ruler. The teacher tells him to stop, so he does.
Later on, the kid starts slapping his classmates with the ruler. Once again, the teacher tells him to stop.
Finally, when the kid starts poking the teacher with the ruler, the teacher’s had enough. He takes it from the kid and chastises him.
“That’s it! I’ve had enough of your disruptive behavior!” he yells. “Why do you even have a ruler in class? What are you measuring?”
The kid looks up at him.
“Your patience.”
Ever feel like that? I’ll bet you have. If there’s one word I would use to describe 2024 it’s “disruptive.” In a relatively short time, we’ve endured three seismic shifts at Lutheran: the move to the new hospital, the merger with Intermountain and the pullout from Kaiser. The ground we’re standing on has not yet settled.
There are two things in life we can control: how we prepare for what might happen, and how we respond to what’s just happened.
As physicians who’ve dedicated our lives to the study and practice of medicine, we’re well prepared to respond to these disruptions: We’re tripling down on our focus to ensure our patients receive the safest care, the best-possible experience, the highest quality at every touchpoint.
Take Moving Day in August, as one example. I’m still impressed by the memory of that day. Twenty ambulances moved 122 patients from the old campus to the new campus, safely and without incident, in just eight hours. It was flawless. Dozens of you assisted in the planning, and every one of you working that day was essential in the execution. Thank you for your focus on our patients, that day and every day.
Managing the business of the medical staff in any year isn’t easy, but the added pressures of 2024 required extra commitment. I’d like to thank our support team, Georgeann Bell, Brooke Salazar and Brook Monchak. They do a fantastic job managing the medical staff so this whole operation can run smoothly. We couldn’t do it without them.
Dr. Aram Neuschatz, chair of Peer Review, and Dr. Jeff DesJardin, chair of Credentials, and their committee members also belong in the bucket of people who continue to dedicate themselves to the necessary business of the medical staff, benefitting us and our patients, all within this disruptive swirl. They’ve certainly made my job as chief a lot easier.
So has our CMO, Dr. Kathy Crabtree. She’s been an excellent partner as I’ve advocated on your behalf in response to everything new: new campus, new clinical relationships, new leadership, new platforms and more. I’m a pretty honest person, which you might know, and honesty is a trait Kathy respects and shares. We’ve had productive conversations about how we can optimize our care and experience in this still shifting world of everything new.
Patience. Ours has been tested, and every day we get to choose how to respond. Keep this in mind: Not every year will be as disruptive as 2024. In fact, in the next six months, a lot will play out that will offer some stability.
Our newly merged enterprise will continue to reorient, firmly setting its structure, its leadership and the processes that connect all of us.
We’ll understand better how Kaiser’s decisions will impact the movement of our cases, those revenues and our colleagues’ futures.
Lutheran will reestablish its referral patterns and regain the ambulance traffic lost after the move across I-70, further solidifying our position in the market. Yes, I’m confident. We are Lutheran, after all.
Disruptions happen, but they don’t need to upend our purpose. We control our commitment to the care we provide and the effect we have on the lives of the patients who need us. Let’s do that, help where we can, offer opinions when asked, and wait for it all to play out. Inch by inch, it will.
Thank you for your confidence and partnership. Cheers to all of us in 2025.