Ok, so we have passed Labor Day weekend – the “unofficial”
end of summer. While the calendar says summer doesn’t actually end until
tomorrow, the beginning of September is usually the time most of us think of
the going back to school or back to work.
I shared some of my goals for the summer, for example my
summer reading list. Out of the six books I wanted to read, I read five of
the six.
The Talk Like Ted book was fabulous and I have already
lent it out, especially if you do any presentations or public speaking. The key take away I got from this book was
the art of saying less but having a bigger bang with your messages.
I also read “Do the KIND Thing,” “The Vacationers,” “Beautiful
Ruins,” and Sue Grafton’s “X.”
The last book I still have yet to read is “The Oz Principle.”
Of course I picked up other books to read along my travels! I told you about “Touchpoints”
a great management book that brought together so many of the things we have
been working on as part of our management growth.
I also read "Every Last One" by Anna Quindlen
which I loved and the "Beautiful Bureaucrat" which I hated.
My August was filled with travel — China and Japan you
already know about, but this month also had two wedding back to back. I have
now reached the age where my friends’ kids are starting to get married! Both
weddings will put me back on planes to Florida and South Carolina. After doing
the 13 hours to Asia, these are a walk in the park!
While I didn't get as much relax time as I would have
liked, I did spend a great deal of time thinking about the future. Not only are
we working on the RWJ/Barnabas merger, we are also preparing to embark on
updating our three year strategic plan in 2016. This is the time when we look
both ahead and back. What have we accomplished over the last three years, what
is left to do, and how does that fit with both what our families want and the
current state of our health care environment?
You have heard me say
many times that I do not believe the healthcare delivery system will look
anything like what it does today, or in the very near future.
The minute clinics and easy access clinics are now on
every major corner. I believe the next big thing will be the ability to make
use of your medical information. While many of us have electronic medical
records, they’re still not easy to access or are unavailable without going
through many steps. I think sharing protected health information will become as
easy as sharing access to an app with your provider – regardless of where you
are.
The technology is coming too. Accessing doctors via
telemedicine will be the standard, not the exception. While we and others have
begun to dabble in it, it will be more common than going for an office visit.
So yes, I guess you could say I spent a lot of the summer
thinking about how we will fit all of this in and what it will ultimately mean
for our continued growth and efforts.
So how about you? What did you do or think about this
summer? I would love to hear summer vacation stories too!
