Do I really write these things?

So, one of the questions that I get pretty frequently is "Who writes the Weekly Wrap Up, Access Amy, etc for you?"

One of our values is Teamwork, so believe me when I say that these are all team efforts!

The content for both the Wrap Up and Access Amy come from each and every one of you! Your achievements, your events, your questions and concerns. Sometimes you write to me about a big award a colleague recently received, or questions about a new program. But everything that is shared is about our Children’s Specialized Hospital family.

For the Wrap Up, some of the information is written by others and shared in the Wrap Up format. As for Access Amy, let me set the record straight – I write every single blog.  And because I’m a planner, they are written sometimes long before they appear on the blog – well, depending on the topic.

Like I said, it’s a team effort.

I’ll be the first to admit, grammar is not my strongest skill and my fingers often type faster than spell check can keep up with! So, I have a team to make sure I write well! Rose Allsop (Exec. Asst., New Brunswick) helps me to format the Weekly Wrap Up and send it out to everyone, after Megan Muller (Internal Comm Spec, New Brunswick) gives it a quick review for typos and errors.

For Access Amy, Megan and Rebecca Mazzarella (Comm Mgr, Mountainside) read over my posts and give me some feedback on how to make them better. They also help to publish them and get the word out about the new posts.

I am writing this post on Tuesday, August 18 from a fast-moving train in Japan on a once in a life time vacation. This picture is actually taken from the window so you could be here with me!

So you know who writes these posts and my team of helpers. The other question I frequently get is “Why?”

While the easy answer is “because I want to make sure that you have information about health care environment or things we are trying to tackle,” the other reason is that I want you to have a sense of who I am and what influences my leadership and my thinking. 

Thirteen years ago, during the interview process for this job, I was being interviewed by about 10 doctors during the physician portion when one of them said they often didn't understand the decisions that were made out of the "White House," or the upper management. I was then asked what I would do to better inform the staff about the why behind the decisions made, rather than just the decisions themselves.

Fast forward to today. My blog is a vehicle to do just that – to make sure that the all of our team members are informed in not just the final result, but the decision process and all it involves.

One of the reasons I invite you to ask questions on my blog posts, at the employee meetings or give me ideas to write about, is so I can use the forums to try and answer those "why" questions.

Even if you don't agree with decisions, I find having the background of what influenced the decisions helps to have a context for why those decisions were made. 

So, as long as you keep reading and sharing, I will keep writing. I hope you will continue to ask questions and share your ideas, even give me topics you’d like to see here on the blog or shared in the Wrap Up! They don't have to be weighty and serious (I mean, I’ve shared my shoe closet with you guys on the blog!).

So now that you know who writes the blog, I want to hear from you. What should I write about next?