I was honored to participate in the event and to address the subject of Leading Under Ambiguity and Complexity. My goal was to underscore the importance of developing a clear strategy when in this time of volatility, uncertainty and confusion, the future is anything but clear. We all are committed to identifying our key priorities and moving forward, leveraging our organizational culture as a catalyst for results and bringing out the best in our teams – and ourselves.

I hope the Mercy initiatives that I shared, and the healthcare insights and case studies from some of the best and brightest thinkers in the field, illustrated the critical roles we, as leaders, have in making complex decisions that drive our organizations forward.

I enjoyed and appreciate the opportunity.  Below are the links I referenced:

Daniel Goleman, What Makes Leader? – http://amzn.to/YT8P1c

Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence – http://amzn.to/10Llmna

Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility – http://amzn.to/13vbSMt

MaxDePree, Leadership Jazz - http://amzn.to/YGToa3

Michael Hyatt, What Are the Most Important Leadership Decisions? - http://bit.ly/10nBY2K

Peter Drucker, They’re Not Employees, They’re People – bit.ly/10VbQbi

To this day, nursing school graduates recite “The Nightingale Pledge” during their “pinning” ceremonies. The pledge was penned in honor of Nightingale and is a statement of the ethics and principles of the nursing profession. For most nursing graduates, the oath marks their official entry into the noble profession:

 “Before God and those assembled here, I solemnly pledge;

To adhere to the code of ethics of the nursing profession;

To co-operate faithfully with the other members of the nursing team and to carry out faithfully and to the best of my ability the instructions of the physician or the nurse who may be assigned to supervise my work;

I will not do anything evil or malicious and I will not knowingly give any harmful drug or assist in malpractice.

I will not reveal any confidential information that may come to my knowledge in the course of my work.

And I pledge myself to do all in my power to raise the standards and prestige of the practical nursing;

May my life be devoted to service and to the high ideals of the nursing profession.”

Our society has a very deep appreciation for the very special people who commit their lives to God’s work of caring for the sick and injured.

At Mercy, we are in a unique position because we not only have nurses working in key care and leadership positions within all of our facilities, but we also support the training of nurses and other healthcare professionals at Mercy College of Ohio.

Michael S. and Ann R. pose for the camera. Michael and Ann are nurses at St. Anne in the Surgery department.

As I walk the halls of our facilities I often come across the “nurses in training” in their white scrubs and watch as they learn from those more experienced nurses. Their nursing teachers are helping to guide and instruct these future nurses not only about the clinical care but also how to interact with patients and their families. 

Please join me in saying “thank you” to the nurses in our lives. They deserve our sincere gratitude and enduring respect, not just during this recognized week, but every single day of the year.

There is no denying that rehab plays an important role in a successful recovery from surgery. Experts now believe that cancer patients can benefit from similar high-level rehabilitation programs.

I’m proud to announce a comprehensive rehabilitation service for our cancer patients. Mercy is now certified by the STAR^® (Survivorship Training and Rehabilitation) Program, a nationally recognized cancer survivorship certification that focuses on improving the lives of survivors who suffer from the side-effects caused by treatments.

Obtaining STAR^® certification is tied to Mercy’s system-wide commitment to providing the highest quality care. STAR^® is the gold standard for cancer care. The Mercy Cancer Centers are the only facilities in Ohio to offer these premium services to cancer survivors.

Cancer patients who undergo treatment by radiation or chemo therapy may experience pain, weakness, fatigue, shoulder problems, balance and gait problems, memory and concentration issues, swallowing and speech problems and lymphedema (swelling that may occur in arms or legs).

As part of the STAR^® program the Mercy Cancer Centers now offer specially trained and certified specialists in rehabilitation medicine, including rehabilitation nurses, and physical, occupational and speech therapists.

An important part of STAR^® at Mercy revolves around our commitment to getting to know our patients better so that we can treat them better. Each cancer rehab program is designed for the individual needs of the patient.

Mercy Cancer Centers are located at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, Mercy Children’s Hospital, Mercy St. Charles Hospital, Mercy St. Anne Hospital and Mercy Tiffin Hospital. Mercy Cancer Center at St. Charles and St. Anne are departments of Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center.

Dr. Peeke, a respected national healthcare author and speaker, recently came

Left to Right: Andrea R. Price, Mercy CEO; Dr. Pamela Peeke; and Deb Ortiz-Flores, Executive Director of Lucas County Job and Family Services.

to Toledo as part of Mercy’s long-running Community Leader Breakfast series. She told a group of about 120 business, government and organizational leaders that their employees’ diet, health and fitness habits have a direct impact on their organization’s bottom line.

Dr. Peeke points to neuroscience-based research which indicates that some foods can exhibit highly addictive qualities similar to drugs or alcohol. In her newest book, The Hunger Fix, she addresses the addictive aspects of certain foods and provides a plan to break the cycle of poor nutrition and fitness habits.

Pamela Peeke, MD, is an internationally recognized expert, physician, scientist and author in the fields of nutrition, stress, fitness and public health. Dr. Peeke has authored several bestselling books, serves as Chief Medical Correspondent at Discovery Health TV, and is a frequent guest expert on national talk shows. Her commitment to promoting a healthy lifestyle has earned her the title, The Doc Who Walks the Talk™.

The 17 Mercy Medical Partners primary care practices have earned Level 2 Patient-Centered Medical Homes recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). To earn this recognition a medical practice must adhere to a rigorous set of standards and specific criteria, relating to patient care. The physicians must demonstrate their commitment to working in teams and coordinating and tracking patient care over time.

The PCMH is a model that establishes partnerships between patients and their personal physicians. A specialized team, under the guidance of a primary care physician, coordinates care. A key element of the PCMH approach is preventive care, and management of chronic illnesses.

At Mercy, PCMH care teams are supported by leading edge health information technology, like Care Path, Mercy’s electronic health record and its patient Internet portal, My Chart.  With My Chart, patients communicate directly with their care team, view test results and schedule appointments, all online.

Ken Bertka, MD is Mercy’s Vice President of Physician Clinical Integration. Dr. Bertka says the NCQA recognition demonstrates Mercy’s commitment to the future of healthcare. “We are very pleased our first ten offices achieved NCQA recognition,” Dr. Bertka said. “These primary care office teams worked unbelievably hard to transform their practices. Over a period of 15 months, these offices implemented an electronic health record, launched quality improvement initiatives and improved many fundamental office workflows to become more patient-centric.”

Dr. Bertka reminds us that PCMH is a journey, not a destination. He said the new approach represents an exciting transformation into the future of primary care. 

I applaud Dr. Bertka for his leadership and I congratulate the primary care practices that achieved this honor. I’m proud that Mercy is embracing the future of healthcare in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.

In many respects the changes in healthcare, most notably the Affordable Care Act, have already provided us with a preview of what our business will look like over the next few years. The changes have been coming quickly, and they have demanded that we are not caught waiting for things to happen, but rather moving out ahead, embracing the kinds of innovation that will enhance our ability to care for our patients and serve our community.

Among the changes we know will be part of the new healthcare landscape is the concept of Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMH). As I’ve shared with you before, Mercy believes this innovative model holds tremendous promise as a way to improve care by transforming how primary care is organized and delivered. PCMHs foster a team-based approach to an ongoing, accessible, and comprehensive relationship between primary care physicians and their patients.

In the PCMH model, the physician and his or her team works closely with the patient to develop a comprehensive treatment plan and to set goals. It is this coordinated team approach that will result in overall better outcomes for our patients.

Dr. Kenneth Bertka, Mercy’s Vice President of Physician Clinical Integration explains PCMH in this brief video. Click here to view the video.

Among the keys to PCMH success are Chronic Disease Management and Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. Chronic Disease Management is a structured approach that revolves around a coordinated treatment plan, careful monitoring, medication management, measuring care quality and outcomes, and resources and support for patient self-management. At the core of PCMH and Chronic Disease Management is the broad adoption by healthcare providers of EHR systems.

The PCMH model demands a commitment to quality and relies heavily on clinical decision-support tools to guide the decision making process with patients. To make it work, we will carefully measure our performance and respond quickly to patient experiences.

PCMHs foster a team-based approach to an ongoing, accessible, and comprehensive relationship between a primary care physician and patient.

We are experiencing the dawning of a new era of healthcare in the United States. Our challenge, as always, is to ensure that our focus is not on computers or spreadsheets, but rather on providing the best possible care for our patients.

If you would like to read more about Mercy’s approach to Electronic Health Record, I invite to read this article by our own Dr. Ken Bertka, published recently on Becker’s Hospital Review. Click here to read the article.

Philanthropy plays a key role in Mercy’s ability to fulfill its mission of caring and compassion in the communities we serve. We are truly grateful for the generous support we have always received for our foundations.

Historically, Mercy’s philanthropic foundations were aligned with our hospitals. While we recognize the success of an approach that has stood the test of time, we wanted to make sure it was still the best model.

Recently, we asked a group of volunteer community leaders to closely examine our foundation structure to help us determine if there was a better way to align our foundations to improve the broader reach of our mission.

Mercy leadership decided to embrace the group’s suggestion to consolidate each of the foundations in the metro Toledo area into one comprehensive organization. The Mercy St. Charles, Mercy St. Vincent, Mercy Children’s and St. Marguerite d’ Youville Foundations are now one robust foundation — the Mercy Foundation. 

Previous financial gifts that were intended to support an individual hospital will continue to be honored, as will the wishes of those contributors who targeted their gift to a specific facility or program.

I sincerely appreciate the community leaders who helped us chart this new course for our foundation. I am confident it provides a unique opportunity to reinvent and reinvigorate the role of philanthropy at Mercy.

However, the power of today’s leading edge communication technology has also opened a world of opportunities in healthcare. The most innovative adoption of remote communication technology today may be in the field of Neuromedicine. I am proud that Mercy has stepped ahead of the field and embraced the future of Neuromedicine, to save lives today.

Smartphones may be complicated devices, but they are nothing compared to the human body’s nervous system which includes the brain, spinal cord, and nerves that transmit signals throughout the body.

When something goes wrong in the nervous system, time becomes very important. There’s a saying in Neuromedicine, “seconds cost brain cells.” That’s because during just one second of a stroke 32,000 brain cells die. In less than a minute, the stroke will have killed 1.9 million brain cells.

At Mercy, we have focused intensely on saving seconds when it comes to treating stroke patients.

Mercy Neuroscience provides a comprehensive care approach, and a team of the best and brightest physicians and nurses, all aligned to achieving world-class neuro and stroke outcomes.

Designated as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission, the Mercy Stroke Center is the recipient of their Gold Seal of Approval®.

Mercy’s team includes Toledo’s most experienced neurovascular surgeon, John Whapham, MD, MS a fellowship-trained stroke/critical care neurologist with advanced training in endovascular surgery.

The Mercy Stroke Center has been chosen to serve as a national research site for one of the most futuristic technologies in medicine today, Emergent Remote Presence. This is a self-propelled robot that facilitates direct communication between stroke experts and neuroendovascular specialists at Mercy St. Vincent and physicians in outlying communities. The future really is here today.

All of the specialized training, state-of-the-art technology, unmatched expertise and unwavering commitment of Mercy’s neuro services is combined with one very important goal … saving seconds.

In many respects the changes in healthcare, most notably the Affordable Care Act, have already provided us with a preview of what our business will look like over the next few years. The changes have been coming quickly, and they have demanded that we are not caught waiting for things to happen, but rather moving out ahead, embracing the kinds of innovation that will enhance our ability to care for our patients and serve our community.

Among the changes we know will be part of the new healthcare landscape is the concept of Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMH). We believe this innovative model holds tremendous promise as a way to improve care by transforming how primary care is organized and delivered. PCMHs foster a team-based approach to an ongoing, accessible, and comprehensive relationship between primary care physicians and their patients.

In the PCMH model, the physician and his or her team works closely with the patient to develop a comprehensive treatment plan and to set goals. It is this coordinated team approach that will result in overall better outcomes for our patients.

Dr. Kenneth Bertka, Mercy’s Vice President of Physician Clinical Integration explains PCMH in this brief video. Click here to view the video.

Among the keys to PCMH success are Chronic Disease Management and Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. Chronic Disease Management is a structured approach that revolves around a coordinated treatment plan, careful monitoring, medication management, measuring care quality and outcomes, and resources and support for patient self-management. At the core of PCMH and Chronic Disease Management is the broad adoption by healthcare providers of EHR systems.

The PCMH model demands a commitment to quality and relies heavily on clinical decision-support tools to guide the decision making process with patients. To make it work, we will carefully measure our performance and respond quickly to patient experiences.

PCMHs foster a team-based approach to an ongoing, accessible, and comprehensive relationship between a primary care physician and patient.

We are experiencing the dawning of a new era of healthcare in the United States. Our challenge, as always, is to ensure that our focus is not on computers or spreadsheets, but rather on providing the best possible care for our patients.

If you would like to read more about Mercy’s approach to Electronic Health Record, I invite to read this article by our own Dr. Ken Bertka, published recently on Becker’s Hospital Review. Click here to read the article.

At the end of this blog post, I’ll include a link for some resources on the subject. In the meantime, I wanted to take this opportunity to mention an innovative new procedure that could mean the difference between life and death for your employees with irregular heartbeats.

Recently, the Mercy Heart & Vascular Center became the first hospital in the region to perform a groundbreaking new procedure that reduces the risk of stroke for those who suffer from the irregular heartbeat condition known as atrial fibrillation (A-fib) and are unable to take blood thinning medications. It is estimated that A-fib affects three million people in the United States today. The condition makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood properly and is one of the leading causes of stroke.

The first procedure was performed on a 63 year old patient at the Mercy Heart & Vascular Center by Ameer Kabour, MD, chief of cardiology at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center. It uses two catheters, which are inserted through tiny incisions. One goes under the rib cage; the other is inserted through the patient’s groin. Using the two catheters, Dr. Kabour tightens a surgical loop around the left atrial appendage, which helps to prevent the irregular heartbeat. The procedure, which is approved by the FDA, has proven to be successful in about 95 percent of the patients as a permanent solution to preventing blood clots that lead to strokes.

I am proud that Mercy is on the forefront of this technology, which may allow your workers with A-fib to dramatically reduce their risk of stroke.

If you would like to learn more about the procedure, click here to view WTOL TV report and interview with Dr. Kabour. 

And, click here to view a recent report that examines the importance of maintaining a healthy workforce.