As the sun begins to set at 4:30 PM on the East coast, it would be easy to plunge into a seasonal funk and rue the loss of brilliant fall foliage and moderate temperatures.

Yet, I had a productive day, making the slides for my case presentation with Prof.

I was pleasantly surprised to be recommended when a hospital leader told a noted consultant, “Our surgeons are in need of marital therapy.” Although I have been married over two decades, I do not think of my work competencies using that adjective and noun.

In Charting the Course, the husband-and-wife team of John Nance and Kathleen Bartholomew team up to write a novel about how an impassioned physician CEO sets out to change a hospital’s culture.  He is determined to avoid making the same mistakes that he made in his previous job as CEO in Oregon:

I ordered and cajoled people into compliance with procedures and objective measures.

Political campaigns have focused attention on MA, where I live, as a pioneer in healthcare reform.  For further insights from Massachusetts healthcare leaders in the news, please read on.

In What’s Happening in Massachusetts: Lessons from the Front Lines of Healthcare Reform, Dr.

Last Friday, I felt that I had the best job in the world, attending and presenting at the Leadership Summit of the Wisconsin Hospital Association.  First, we heard from Gayle Capozzalo, ACHE Chair and EVP for Strategy and System Development at Yale New Haven Health System about Successfully Leading Change. 

The inspiration for today’s post came from Chris Ham, in which he set forth the following points.  Mr. Ham is Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, which seeks to understand how the health system in England can be improved:

• Leaders will need to balance the pace-setting style that predominates among top leaders by valuing and encouraging the contribution of others
• If integrated care is to become a reality, leaders will need to work across organisations and services, using influence as much as authority
• Collaboration and co-operation, and working through consensus, have never been more crucial
• Stronger engagement between staff, clinicians and patients is crucial to improving patient outcomes

In “Coaching A Team to Improved Performance,” Becker and Wandel wrote that pacesetting leaders set challenging goals; however, the disadvantage of top-down leadership is that it can diminish team cohesion and lead front-line healthcare professionals to dismiss leaders’ goals as “flavor-of-the-month” efforts that, like kidney stones, will pass, often with moderate pain. 

I had a wonderful time facilitating a medical staff retreat in the Midwest last weekend.  The focusing event came when a neurologist reacted to the news of two hospital competing systems, where one spent over $30 million to buy land within a mile of its competitor.

Today’s post is a tribute to Dot, who waits tables at Spencer’s Bakery & Cafe in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, where I am covering surgery this weekend.  It was homecoming day at Foxcroft Academy, and I watched over 20 people come into the restaurant from 12:30-1 pm. 

I have enjoyed a stimulating month since the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act.  A number of physicians have asked me for mentoring advice for themselves and their colleagues, feeling that something is about to happen that will transform healthcare delivery. 

Rather than offer lame excuses about why I have not written a blog post in over two weeks, I decided to provide a glimpse of how I vacationed and why I thought that collaborative teaming captured the essence of my stay.