[Applause]
each of you have some has something very
essential in common with every other
person in this room with each member of
our community and with few exceptions
with every living person on the planet
some more than others unfortunately and
I bet some of you are in the midst of it
right now but all of us await this
inevitable tart time of our human
existence a time when were vulnerable
independent but also courageous and
hopeful the times in our lives when
we’re a patient it begins with a
beautiful but commonly medically
assisted assisted entrance into this
world when were born followed by most
with routine childhood vaccinations
school sports physicals and those
unplanned trips to the emergency room to
heal the broken bones and to treat the
minor injuries of our young active lives
next those pesky annual physicals that
we try to put off but for some reason
were ultimately compelled to do them
anyway then we enter our own
childbearing years and it’s mothers and
fathers we become immensely involved in
the medical planning of the perfect
child birthing experience but often
discover for the first time the true
wonder of modern medicine in the miracle
of bringing life into the world
middle age hits next and with it so do
the frequent screening procedures and
exams that can identify diseases early
enough that clinicians can often
successfully intervene and then we get
older we get sticker we struggle with
age-related illnesses and comorbidities
and we become frequent utilizers of the
health care system as we all valent ly
fight another trait we all share our
mortality patients we are all patients
and the etymology of that word helps us
speak about what it means especially as
a group
a patient a person who is being treated
for an injury or an illness traces to
the Latin word that means one who
suffers and it shares its origin with
the adjective to be patient
enduring without complaint to wait
I’m sure the irony is not lost to those
of you who have been in a medical
waiting room recently that our ancestor
lien was new to be a medical patient in
to wait patiently would be so inevitably
linked so is patients we secretly from
our suffering and we want it live a
healthy life so how are we doing there
was light the answer we know is not good
though the United States spends more on
health care both per capita in a higher
percentage of gross domestic product
American Health is by most metrics worse
than that of other nations our infant
mortality rate is higher our life
expectancy is lower we have higher rates
of chronic condition and we are the most
overweight nation on the planet why what
can we do before we explore that let’s
first consider our important partners in
the pursuit of better health the
physicians nurses and other health care
professionals who either independently
or as part of the care team serve the
Hippocratic oath to show beneficence to
all and to do no harm so let’s focus on
the physician today it’s a
representative at the care team the word
physician comes from the latin word
physical and the later French word
physic and it both of those mean a
treatment or a remedy and from that we
got the word physician a medical
practitioner or one who holds the remedy
most physicians went into medicine for
altruistic reasons to serve and to heal
and to experience the physician patient
relationship that among human
interactions remains unique and profound
but being a physician isn’t what it once
was
our physicians are burn out 50% of them
according to most statistics they’re
emotionally exhausted they’re working
longer hours they feel depersonalized
and most importantly they don’t think
they’re doing as good of a job as they
need to be according to the American
Medical Association half of a physician
work day is spent on electronic health
data record entry and other
administrative tasks
I assure you they’d rather spend the
time that they do now looking at the
glare of a computer screen peering into
the lights of your eyes and listening to
the beat of your heart
so as patients were collectively
struggling and as physicians were
collectively struggling so this is the
backdrop to modern American medicine but
there is also good news
crazy advances in technology
breakthrough medications 3d printed body
parts in big data and power powerful
information that’s coming out of all of
that electronic data health record entry
personalized medicine cures for cancer
the microbiome revolution and so so much
more and on the opposite end of the
technology spectrum there’s another
important movement underway evidence is
growing rapidly that there’s something
very powerful but simple that can
supplement the traditional elements of
medicine and change the healthcare
reality of the future and here’s what’s
great it’s free it’s universally
available it’s infinite and it works
it’s our experience our human experience
how we feel when we’re in a healthcare
setting what we see in what we hear the
words that are spoken to us and our
emotional and intellectual response to
them the patient is experienced the
patient experience is what’s beneath the
surface the deeper more visceral
exchange
but we’ve known this all along haven’t
we that what happens to our thoughts and
feelings matters equally to what happens
to ourselves and although the the ideas
that new the time has come for us to
consider it with urgency and to realize
that we’re at an inflection point a time
of rapid change and great opportunity
positive thinking laughter words thought
prayer love researchers continue to
understand the potency of these human
human feelings human actions and here’s
what we know these experiences can
reduce the rate of death from
cardiovascular disease lower rates of
depression reduce stress-related illness
strengthen our immune system increase
our resistance to the common cold
improve our well-being and yes increase
the lifespan let’s think of it as the
experienced placebo effect the exceed
both affect and that’s a new word
because I made it up
the word placebo is also Latin in origin
and it means I shall please a placebo is
an inactive ingredient that’s often used
as the control in a clinical trial
something I’m very familiar with in my
line of work it’s the director of a
clinical research program the placebo
effect is a psychological phenomenon in
which the recipient of a placebo
perceives an improvement in their
condition based on their expectations
and that’s the key a person’s
expectations a component of the
experience makes a difference separately
from the treatment itself so patient
experience it results from and is an
extension of this word culture a Health
Systems culture its belief system but
here’s the tricky thing about culture is
that it cannot be exposed it has to
happen organically it has to become part
of a Health Systems DNA and when it does
the full of an organization all of its
people have a clear sense of purpose and
they know their why and when they know
their why they have an unfettered focus
in a deep custody and belief not only in
the importance of the work but in the
importance of their individual
contribution to it so let’s see how
we’re creating this right here at home
I’m one of 16 cultural ambassadors at a
local health system and we’re charged to
lead our organizations culture and over
the last few years we’ve implemented a
lot of different activities initiatives
programs and policy and they’ve
culminated in a series of words of the
Mobil words such as mindfulness
sensitivity and ownership and we ask
ourselves can words in the principles
and behaviors they conjure make good
medicine
and create a community of health so
let’s first focus on the word at the
moment openness and I start with
openness because without it individual
beliefs and system cultures are
impermeable are we open because if we’re
not open we’re only one other thing
we’re closed
do we think that how we treat people can
impact their health
well u.s. health systems do eight out of
ten of them have patient experience not
only in their three to five year
strategic plan but they have it at the
top of it and it’s not surprising
because in addition to being the right
thing to do
government and other payers are
beginning to incentivize or are
incentivizing health systems based on
hospital and clinician group patient
consumer experience surveys you may have
heard of them each caps and CG caps but
what about at the individual level do
the people in the daily grind that are
taking blood pressures collecting lab
samples and holding scalpels do they
believe I was talking to a physician
recently and he said he thought our
experience based efforts were a little
trivial and he questions them because he
thinks they’re common sense and it
shouldn’t be necessary for them to be
orchestrated for them to be prescribed
and he’s right they shouldn’t but they
do people vary widely in their
background and their personal
experiences and how well equipped they
are to deal with others and stressful
settings and trust me especially in the
front lines health care is tough people
also vary significantly in their
training and education and how much they
know about self-awareness and about
interpersonal communications
so we’re making no assumptions we’re
ensuring that every healthcare worker is
empowered and skilled to reach their
full potential in the human health
exchange
the next word of the moment is
connecting to be connected means to be
united physically or by principle by
purpose and as a Kansan I think about
our beloved Prairie tallgrass the tufa
tall
sea of grass warm with the Sun and alive
by the wind do you know what’s beneath
the surface what’s underground is a very
atypical 15 feet of Route that extends
far beneath the soil above ground the
grasses the plants are really just the
photosynthesizers collecting sunlight to
nourish the much larger community
underground
and beneath the surface the roots are
connected they’re connected so that they
can protect the soil from erosion so
that they can feed the soil and they’re
connected so that they can do together
what they can’t do alone
and a health care system an organization
has to be connected beneath the surface
to support to sustain the workers
above-ground to feed the mission to care
for others and to care for each other
the next word of the moment is inclusion
inclusion is important in health care in
business since it’s in society and in
life it’s become a little bit of a
catchphrase to represent the philosophy
and related programming that ensures all
people are treated justly and have equal
access to resources into opportunities
there’s something I think we’ve
forgotten about inclusion we have our
educators to thank for bringing
inclusion to the forefront in the 1970s
when they went through remarkable
efforts to incorporate special learners
with standard learners in the classroom
but let’s go back even further
let’s consider the original meaning of
the word inclusion it’s Latin original
meeting is to shut in to shut in I know
it’s a little jarring at first and I had
to think about it in a while and hover
over it for a few days before I
understood it and I figured it out when
I compared it to contrasted it with to
shut out of course inclusion means to
shut in to bring others within to bring
them inside and when we do when we shut
others in we’re better were stronger or
wiser and what we become is truly
remarkable we become human beings taking
care of human beings so think about
5,000 health care workers in a system
that delivers about 800,000 face-to-face
medical services in a year and if each
of those is supplemented by just one
phone what one event is scheduled or to
register and then on average two more
interactions in a year and if one of
those is shared with a family member or
a friend we’re totally in five million
human interactions and if those
interactions are open if they’re
connected if they’re inclusive if
they’re kind think not only about the
impact on our community’s health but
also on its people so we have one last
guiding word in this one is for all of
you it’s for all of you as patients it’s
for all of us as a community and it
might seem a bit of a stretch at first
but it does not minimize the pain
suffering and tragedy that patients and
families experience every day your word
at the moment is play
to play means to participate in to
occupy oneself with to take charge of it
means to show up to the game plane
stimulates us
it teaches and improves us and it
reminds us why we care about our health
in the first place
so let’s become fierce competitors
active members of our health care team
let’s share in the decision-making in
the strategy in the work in the outcome
and in the final score and let’s all
cherish and uphold the physician-patient
relationship the health care system
community relationship that among human
interactions remains both unique and
profound thank you
[Applause]
each of you have some has something very
essential in common with every other
person in this room with each member of
our community and with few exceptions
with every living person on the planet
some more than others unfortunately and
I bet some of you are in the midst of it
right now but all of us await this
inevitable tart time of our human
existence a time when were vulnerable
independent but also courageous and
hopeful the times in our lives when
we’re a patient it begins with a
beautiful but commonly medically
assisted assisted entrance into this
world when were born followed by most
with routine childhood vaccinations
school sports physicals and those
unplanned trips to the emergency room to
heal the broken bones and to treat the
minor injuries of our young active lives
next those pesky annual physicals that
we try to put off but for some reason
were ultimately compelled to do them
anyway then we enter our own
childbearing years and it’s mothers and
fathers we become immensely involved in
the medical planning of the perfect
child birthing experience but often
discover for the first time the true
wonder of modern medicine in the miracle
of bringing life into the world
middle age hits next and with it so do
the frequent screening procedures and
exams that can identify diseases early
enough that clinicians can often
successfully intervene and then we get
older we get sticker we struggle with
age-related illnesses and comorbidities
and we become frequent utilizers of the
health care system as we all valent ly
fight another trait we all share our
mortality patients we are all patients
and the etymology of that word helps us
speak about what it means especially as
a group
a patient a person who is being treated
for an injury or an illness traces to
the Latin word that means one who
suffers and it shares its origin with
the adjective to be patient
enduring without complaint to wait
I’m sure the irony is not lost to those
of you who have been in a medical
waiting room recently that our ancestor
lien was new to be a medical patient in
to wait patiently would be so inevitably
linked so is patients we secretly from
our suffering and we want it live a
healthy life so how are we doing there
was light the answer we know is not good
though the United States spends more on
health care both per capita in a higher
percentage of gross domestic product
American Health is by most metrics worse
than that of other nations our infant
mortality rate is higher our life
expectancy is lower we have higher rates
of chronic condition and we are the most
overweight nation on the planet why what
can we do before we explore that let’s
first consider our important partners in
the pursuit of better health the
physicians nurses and other health care
professionals who either independently
or as part of the care team serve the
Hippocratic oath to show beneficence to
all and to do no harm so let’s focus on
the physician today it’s a
representative at the care team the word
physician comes from the latin word
physical and the later French word
physic and it both of those mean a
treatment or a remedy and from that we
got the word physician a medical
practitioner or one who holds the remedy
most physicians went into medicine for
altruistic reasons to serve and to heal
and to experience the physician patient
relationship that among human
interactions remains unique and profound
but being a physician isn’t what it once
was
our physicians are burn out 50% of them
according to most statistics they’re
emotionally exhausted they’re working
longer hours they feel depersonalized
and most importantly they don’t think
they’re doing as good of a job as they
need to be according to the American
Medical Association half of a physician
work day is spent on electronic health
data record entry and other
administrative tasks
I assure you they’d rather spend the
time that they do now looking at the
glare of a computer screen peering into
the lights of your eyes and listening to
the beat of your heart
so as patients were collectively
struggling and as physicians were
collectively struggling so this is the
backdrop to modern American medicine but
there is also good news
crazy advances in technology
breakthrough medications 3d printed body
parts in big data and power powerful
information that’s coming out of all of
that electronic data health record entry
personalized medicine cures for cancer
the microbiome revolution and so so much
more and on the opposite end of the
technology spectrum there’s another
important movement underway evidence is
growing rapidly that there’s something
very powerful but simple that can
supplement the traditional elements of
medicine and change the healthcare
reality of the future and here’s what’s
great it’s free it’s universally
available it’s infinite and it works
it’s our experience our human experience
how we feel when we’re in a healthcare
setting what we see in what we hear the
words that are spoken to us and our
emotional and intellectual response to
them the patient is experienced the
patient experience is what’s beneath the
surface the deeper more visceral
exchange
but we’ve known this all along haven’t
we that what happens to our thoughts and
feelings matters equally to what happens
to ourselves and although the the ideas
that new the time has come for us to
consider it with urgency and to realize
that we’re at an inflection point a time
of rapid change and great opportunity
positive thinking laughter words thought
prayer love researchers continue to
understand the potency of these human
human feelings human actions and here’s
what we know these experiences can
reduce the rate of death from
cardiovascular disease lower rates of
depression reduce stress-related illness
strengthen our immune system increase
our resistance to the common cold
improve our well-being and yes increase
the lifespan let’s think of it as the
experienced placebo effect the exceed
both affect and that’s a new word
because I made it up
the word placebo is also Latin in origin
and it means I shall please a placebo is
an inactive ingredient that’s often used
as the control in a clinical trial
something I’m very familiar with in my
line of work it’s the director of a
clinical research program the placebo
effect is a psychological phenomenon in
which the recipient of a placebo
perceives an improvement in their
condition based on their expectations
and that’s the key a person’s
expectations a component of the
experience makes a difference separately
from the treatment itself so patient
experience it results from and is an
extension of this word culture a Health
Systems culture its belief system but
here’s the tricky thing about culture is
that it cannot be exposed it has to
happen organically it has to become part
of a Health Systems DNA and when it does
the full of an organization all of its
people have a clear sense of purpose and
they know their why and when they know
their why they have an unfettered focus
in a deep custody and belief not only in
the importance of the work but in the
importance of their individual
contribution to it so let’s see how
we’re creating this right here at home
I’m one of 16 cultural ambassadors at a
local health system and we’re charged to
lead our organizations culture and over
the last few years we’ve implemented a
lot of different activities initiatives
programs and policy and they’ve
culminated in a series of words of the
Mobil words such as mindfulness
sensitivity and ownership and we ask
ourselves can words in the principles
and behaviors they conjure make good
medicine
and create a community of health so
let’s first focus on the word at the
moment openness and I start with
openness because without it individual
beliefs and system cultures are
impermeable are we open because if we’re
not open we’re only one other thing
we’re closed
do we think that how we treat people can
impact their health
well u.s. health systems do eight out of
ten of them have patient experience not
only in their three to five year
strategic plan but they have it at the
top of it and it’s not surprising
because in addition to being the right
thing to do
government and other payers are
beginning to incentivize or are
incentivizing health systems based on
hospital and clinician group patient
consumer experience surveys you may have
heard of them each caps and CG caps but
what about at the individual level do
the people in the daily grind that are
taking blood pressures collecting lab
samples and holding scalpels do they
believe I was talking to a physician
recently and he said he thought our
experience based efforts were a little
trivial and he questions them because he
thinks they’re common sense and it
shouldn’t be necessary for them to be
orchestrated for them to be prescribed
and he’s right they shouldn’t but they
do people vary widely in their
background and their personal
experiences and how well equipped they
are to deal with others and stressful
settings and trust me especially in the
front lines health care is tough people
also vary significantly in their
training and education and how much they
know about self-awareness and about
interpersonal communications
so we’re making no assumptions we’re
ensuring that every healthcare worker is
empowered and skilled to reach their
full potential in the human health
exchange
the next word of the moment is
connecting to be connected means to be
united physically or by principle by
purpose and as a Kansan I think about
our beloved Prairie tallgrass the tufa
tall
sea of grass warm with the Sun and alive
by the wind do you know what’s beneath
the surface what’s underground is a very
atypical 15 feet of Route that extends
far beneath the soil above ground the
grasses the plants are really just the
photosynthesizers collecting sunlight to
nourish the much larger community
underground
and beneath the surface the roots are
connected they’re connected so that they
can protect the soil from erosion so
that they can feed the soil and they’re
connected so that they can do together
what they can’t do alone
and a health care system an organization
has to be connected beneath the surface
to support to sustain the workers
above-ground to feed the mission to care
for others and to care for each other
the next word of the moment is inclusion
inclusion is important in health care in
business since it’s in society and in
life it’s become a little bit of a
catchphrase to represent the philosophy
and related programming that ensures all
people are treated justly and have equal
access to resources into opportunities
there’s something I think we’ve
forgotten about inclusion we have our
educators to thank for bringing
inclusion to the forefront in the 1970s
when they went through remarkable
efforts to incorporate special learners
with standard learners in the classroom
but let’s go back even further
let’s consider the original meaning of
the word inclusion it’s Latin original
meeting is to shut in to shut in I know
it’s a little jarring at first and I had
to think about it in a while and hover
over it for a few days before I
understood it and I figured it out when
I compared it to contrasted it with to
shut out of course inclusion means to
shut in to bring others within to bring
them inside and when we do when we shut
others in we’re better were stronger or
wiser and what we become is truly
remarkable we become human beings taking
care of human beings so think about
5,000 health care workers in a system
that delivers about 800,000 face-to-face
medical services in a year and if each
of those is supplemented by just one
phone what one event is scheduled or to
register and then on average two more
interactions in a year and if one of
those is shared with a family member or
a friend we’re totally in five million
human interactions and if those
interactions are open if they’re
connected if they’re inclusive if
they’re kind think not only about the
impact on our community’s health but
also on its people so we have one last
guiding word in this one is for all of
you it’s for all of you as patients it’s
for all of us as a community and it
might seem a bit of a stretch at first
but it does not minimize the pain
suffering and tragedy that patients and
families experience every day your word
at the moment is play
to play means to participate in to
occupy oneself with to take charge of it
means to show up to the game plane
stimulates us
it teaches and improves us and it
reminds us why we care about our health
in the first place
so let’s become fierce competitors
active members of our health care team
let’s share in the decision-making in
the strategy in the work in the outcome
and in the final score and let’s all
cherish and uphold the physician-patient
relationship the health care system
community relationship that among human
interactions remains both unique and
profound thank you
[Applause]
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