Every person has a purpose

Over the Memorial Day Weekend I was with friends who work outside of health care. In talking about their work there were a number of times when they’d say things like "I just can't figure out where what I do fits into the bigger picture of the organization" or "I know what I do, but I can't figure out what the rest of 'those people' are doing."

It made me start to worry – do any members of the Children’s Specialized Hospital family feel that way?

Now, the one thing I pride myself on is not deceiving myself. I know every day won’t be perfect nor will we always hit 100 out of 100, but it would break my heart to think that some of our employees may not understand why we are here and just how important your personal role is in reaching our organizational goals.

Our goals may change each year but the “why” we are here is always the same. The why: our commitment, if you will, is to deliver patient- and family-centered care in every experience we deliver.

This is a hypothetical example for visual representation only.

Every single person in our hospital can help us achieve this goal. Whether you are in a clinical therapeutic involvement or if you are giving directions to someone who looks lost in our hallways, you are playing a role in delivering a patient- and family-centered experience.

Each year, during our APR, we all set individual E3 (Engage Every Employee) goals. E3 stands for Engage Every Employee. What does that mean? That every employee is engaged in reaching our departmental and organizational goals; that individual goals are linked to the larger goals. 

Take a look at the infographic on the right. This will help you visualize just how important your E3 goals are. Please note, this is a hypothetical example, and the goals listed under the department and the individual are not necessarily goals of one of our colleagues. However, our growth goal is our actual growth goal!

See that? Your individual goals are mapped out to help your department and the organization as a whole reach success!

Looking for a refresher on our 2015 Organizational Goals? Click here and open "2015 Corporate Goals."

The person you are interacting with should get the feeling that you are helping them the same way you would if they were a dear friend or family member. This kind of care you may not get in some health care settings.

While we all have many different tasks to accomplish in our day, it’s all about the alignment; alignment with our commitment to our patients and families, as well as to our goals – individual, departmental, and organizational. It’s also about being open and accessible to determining how to get children the services that help them reach their maximum potential.

After all, our organizational vision is to create a world where all children can reach their maximum potential. It’s the commitment to being encouraging to our patients and helping them and their families develop a unique plan that can be accomplished.

If you’re not in a clinical role, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Yeah, but how does my position align with this?” Well it is simple, and I’ll tell you how.

Yes, in some cases you are actually delivering the care that we commit to. In other case, like me, you are playing a supporting role to make sure that all the people who are on the front lines giving information and providing care, or doing all the back office paperwork and research can do their work efficiently.

Every action that we do helps lead us to our mission to being preeminent and the best of the best and our commitment is that we do it by putting the child and family at the center of everything we do.

In a few weeks, when we begin our 2015 Employee Engagement Survey, you are going to let us know whether you understand your role and how it is aligned with the Children’s Specialized Hospital commitment to our patients and families. If you have any questions about this, ask them! Now is the time.

I can detail for you where every person fits into this picture. Yes, all 1,279 colleagues! I can see the result of your hard work – the good and joy that you provide every day – and I want to help you see that too.

Life rules to help stay on the straight and narrow

Rules are not always well-received. After all, they imply that someone is telling us what to do, or keeping us from doing what we want. But sometimes, we set rules for ourselves, to keep us on the right path and remain true to ourselves and our morals.

So today, I want you to think about three questions:

1. What rules do you live by, either personally or professionally? 
2. How do you obey by that rule? 
3. How do you let people who either you work with or live with know about the rules?

As an only child, while I would claim my parents had millions of rules, there was really only a couple that everything else originated from.

First and foremost, do your best. This didn’t necessarily mean I had to get straight As or be perfect by any means, but instead implied that I should exert real effort and truly try with all I have.

The second rule, never ever do anything to disrespect our family's name. Your reputation is the only thing you have control over and if you harm it, you may not get a second chance to repair it.

Lastly, and maybe the most important  in my opinion, is always treat people as you want to be treated, regardless of position or title. Simply, be kind.

Here at Children’s Specialized Hospital, we have a number of “work rules,” but there is one that matters deeply to me, and that is No Surprises.

I don't care if you made a major mistake and something terrible happened. Own it, tell me about it, and together we will figure out a solution. Hiding things or sweeping them under the rug is a deadly sin to me. There are very few things, once you know about them, that can't be worked out. It’s the not knowing that causes much more drama and potential harm to relationships.

My other one that I have adopted as I have become older is that you only get one chance to do the right thing. That one small thing could have meant so much if you had just extended a hand. It is a hard one to live by at times, but it has not steered me wrong.

Ok, so you’ve heard/read all the rules that I live by. And you’ve had some time to think about it as you read through this post. Now I want to know, what are the rules that YOU live by? What are the things that you really believe have led to your success as a person and a professional?

I would love to learn about yours, and if you would be willing to share your name when you respond it might help all of us better understand each other and work together!

Walking and Rolling at the 9th Annual Walk n’ Roll

This Saturday was our annual Walk n’ Roll! Can you believe this was the 9^th one we have held in Johnson Park in Piscataway!?

We started the walk as a way to ”introduce” Children’s Specialized Hospital to the New Brunswick community when we were building/opening our new inpatient hospital in 2007. With just over 300 participants the first year, it has been an extreme honor to see it grow to over 2,100 participants this past weekend!

What I find most special about this event is what it brings out in our employees…

Now, I know we’re all a little competitive by nature – but a few years back, when our Foundation suggested that each site have teams and compete to see who can raise more money, I knew they were on to something!

This year’s top honor of Top Children’s Specialized Team goes to Team Mountainside, led by the dynamic duo of Joan Gowdy and Kaylee McGuire. Congratulations to Kaylee, Joan, and all of our employee fundraisers that have literally been fundraising for months!

Not sure how many bake sales, car washes, and happy hours I’ve been to, but you guys are amazing! Doing anything to help our kids – including coming up with some really great ideas! 

 

Speaking about doing anything for our kids, Richard Raymond (Desktop Support Analyst/NB) and Beth Anne Dobosh (Director of Corporate Foundation Relations/New Brunswick) had a crazy idea. Why not send our VGo robot to the Walk n’ Roll and let Poppy control it since he was unable to attend walk this year?!?

Well, if you know Beth Anne like I know Beth Anne, once you give her an idea it will happen. Low and behold – with the help of Rich, Dr. Chris Haines, and Georgia Cassidy (Clinical Nurse Educator/New Brunswick) – that’s exactly what happened!

VGo joined us all on the start line and he walked… well… rolled with us around Johnson Park! Now that’s innovative!

What’s most special about Walk n’ Roll, and what I hope you can personally experience some day, is something that I cannot adequately describe in writing.

It’s a feeling.  A feeling that nearly always moves me to tears. A feeling of joy seeing patients who left our hospital needing help with the simplest of things; now running freely into the arms of the nurse that helped wipe their tears so many years ago.

A feeling of fulfillment seeing patients from Egg Harbor, Clifton, Hamilton, and Toms River all gathered in Piscataway knowing these patients would have never had access to care, close to home, if we haven’t had the means to expand our services and open new outpatient centers.

A feeling of celebration and acceptance for children and people with disabilities – public outings can often be very hard for families with children with disabilities and communities aren’t always very accommodating or accepting of children’s special needs.

At the Walk n’ Roll we do everything we can to help each family have a great experience and we celebrate everyone’s differences by honoring those special kids with fun team names with some really great shirts!  

Thank you to the entire Foundation team for creating this wonderful event that has evolved from a fundraiser to a day of celebration! Special thanks to Toni Bodrato  (Director of Special Events/Mountainside) who led the planning, fundraising, and logistics!

Also a HUGE thank you to all of our sites for your efforts – whether you won the fundraising challenge or not – your leadership and effort matters. Every dollar that you raised and every person you recruited to walk matters. Thank you for your support and compassion for this event and for our kids.

It takes a well-oiled machine to pull off an event as large as this! Great job everyone!

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com has an album full of photos: Click here. 

News 12 NJ did a short news story: Click here.

What is your favorite Walk n’ Roll feeling or memory?

Building relationships through family-centered care

Being unsure of what the future holds for your child’s health can be a scary place to be. So many of our families experience a number of emotions the first time they come to us for care. With the addition of Family Faculty, we have been able to ease the tension that so many of our patients and their families experience on a daily basis.

I received an e-mail last week about our Family Faculty and knew this would be the perfect example to share in this month’s employee recognition blog post.

Over the past few weeks Amy Myers-Morris has had several families with whom she is working with share their struggles with various hardships. While reflecting on how she can better assist them, she shared with me her reflection on how thankful she is to have our Family Faculty.

Luciana Mendes-McGuire (New Brunswick) has been incredibly helpful with these families recently, as they are Spanish-speaking. In addition to trying to understand new terminology pertaining to their child’s health, the families struggle with trying to understand a language they are not familiar with. Thankfully, Luciana has been able to translate the information they need to make decisions for their children’s care.

This has been such a team effort, to work with these recent families. Megan Fennelly (Hamilton) and Sharon Clarken (Hamilton) helped Amy to think about how to approach each of these families, to determine what help they may need and how to be sensitive to the different cultures. Both Megan and Sharon put in a heavy amount of research to gather resources in the community for Luciana to share with the moms, as well as researched insurance options for one of the families!

One of the families expressed a need for “long-term” assistance, so Megan hit the ground running to find organizations in the area – food pantries, clothing drives, etc – that the family could receive help from. Sharon even provided clothes that her own son had grown out of.

The families that Amy and the Family Faculty team have been working with have expressed how incredibly thankful they are that Children’s Specialized Hospital is a support to them, and how gracious they are for the dedication from Amy, Megan, Sharon, and Luciana through this challenging time.

This is just one example of how Family Faculty has become a key player in helping our families at Children’s Specialized Hospital. Knowing that they are available to assists with our families helps our clinical teams better serve the individual child and also lets the family know that Children’s Specialized is a beacon of hope for them.

Please join me in sharing your memories of working with Family Faculty below. 

The influence of a Mother

Every year, we celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May. This year, as Mother’s Day approaches, it reminds me of all of the amazing women I have been blessed with in my life. 

My maternal grandmother was one of 13 children. The first child was born in Poland, and at the turn of the century the family escaped to the United States. The family of farmers was a very male-dominated family, where the men ate first and when they were finished the women were allowed to sit at the table and eat. 

No one messed with my great grandmother. She stood only 5 feet tall but ruled with an iron fist. She loved me oh so very much, but she could make people run from a room with that evil eye of hers. 

My father’s Aunt Doris was a force of nature. Born in Portugal, her family moved to Massachusetts. Later in life  she was widowed with a 1-year-old daughter. She worked at the Reed and Barton silver mill. Aunt Doris and I were fast friends. She loved to cook and I loved to learn. I remember she had a million expressions, and was always taking in someone or lending a hand to those who needed it.

(Left to right) Aunt Doris, my Mom, Me, and my Grandmother at Great Adventure in 1976.

No one has had more influence on me than my own mother. 

You probably already know that I am an only child. There is a special bond between only children and their parents. 

My mother is an artist. She taught me to really see the picture. She would ask, “What do you see?” I would answer, “A black line and red dot.” Then, in her most encouraging tone she’d reply, “Look harder. Can’t you see a face, or maybe the sun?” She taught me to dig deep, not to see what is in front of me but look beyond to see something more beautiful. 

She also taught me to do that with people and in different situations—to not make judgments about what is apparent, but instead to look for the good (or sometimes evil) as it may be. 

My love of art and music come from her. She doesn’t always like the same art that I like, but she always says the same thing, “It has to speak to you. That is what makes it come alive.”

I am blessed to still have both my parents with me, something I cherish every day. While we bicker from time to time, like any mother and daughter, both my parents know that none of the blessings that have come to me would have happened without their unconditional love and support.

My best wishes to all of you who celebrate Mother’s Day! Thank you for all the mothering you do for our children and your colleagues. 

Is there anything you would like to share about how your Mother influenced who you are today?

Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals

Big, Hairy, Audacious goal (BHAG). 

Simply put, a BHAG is a goal that you didn’t think you could achieve, but once you do it makes a huge difference in your life.

In 2005, when the Senior Leadership team was meeting to set our own BHAGs, we set a goal to serve 25,000 children each year. When I asked the team what we would do if and when we hit that goal, both Warren Moore (Exec VP & COO) and Michael Dribbon (VP Business Dev & Chief Research Officer) simultaneously confirmed, “You set new goals.”

We have people throughout our hospital who have set personal BHAGs to focus on their weight, their family, and where they hope to be professionally and personally by a certain point in their life. 

Some of them are very close to achieving their goals and have asked me about what happens next? So much of their lives have been consumed with their determination to achieve their goal or goals that they are now worried about what happens once they succeed. 

One of the craziest times of my life was right before I got married. I was working in Washington, DC, my then fiancé and I were building a house together (mostly ourselves), and we were planning a wedding. Crazy, right? 

The house was a kit home, so all of the pieces were delivered by truck and then we had 9 months to put the entire thing together. Aside from digging the foundation and installing the electric and plumbing we built the home all ourselves, with help from friends and family. Yes, we built the entire house piece by piece.

I remember I would drive back from DC after work on Friday night and we would work all weekend on the house, only to drive back to DC on Sunday night. There was many a time I was so tired, I couldn’t recall making that trip back on the highway.

Did I mention that my first car was a 1976 Dodge Spirit? It ate a ton of oil and gas, in that order. In the snowstorms, I used to pray, “Just get me to April when we are getting married.” 

All the drama around home inspections, construction permits, and more – we lived through it. Then when we were married I had to find a job, so the next list of prayers began. After the job prayers were answered I started praying for a raise, then to let the Governor win the election, and so on. You get the point.

More and more prayers, and more and more goals. 

One of our Service Excellence Standards focuses on improving performance: I am committed to my purpose and strive to grow and improve my personal, departmental, and organizational performance. Achieving that  BHAG simply means that you have freed yourself up to tackling something else, setting a new BHAG! 

You changed, either personally or professionally, and you have an opportunity to focus on the next thing, regardless of what it may be. What matters is celebrating that you worked really hard, and accomplished something important to you, and now it is time to figure out what is next.

Are you currently working on a BHAG? Or have you completed a BHAG and have set a new one for yourself? Maybe you’re looking for help to figure out where to go now? Please share below!