Each day I prepare myself for work by playing the same CD in my head over and over again. “What if it was your mother, your wife, your daughter or son? How would YOU personally want to be treated? What is it about a particular facility that makes you uneasy?”

For the past 19 years, our mission in life has been to create an environment of care that provides a loving, nurturing feeling for families and their loved ones. It has been to provide a center of excellence that addresses not only the need to be competent, but also the need to be human.

It has been my goal to create a truly healing environment where patients have an opportunity to take part in their care and to make decisions about the type of care they receive. It has been about creating a place where Care Partners provide support for their loved ones and where they can actually participate in their loved one’s care. A safe place where massage, aroma, music, pet and reiki therapist roam from patient room to patient room to care for not only those patients but also for their physicians and staff as well.

When my tenure began as a hospital administrator, it was clear from day one that we were not in the hotel business.  As it became more clear that this was my new home, my heart sank.

The hospitals of the 80’s and 90s were not exactly user friendly places, and many of the CEO’s were not normally absorbed in the soft side of care. They were usually forced to focus on reimbursements, unions, recruiting physicians, keeping budgets on target, and many other business considerations.

My initial thoughts were to apply the concepts learned from the hospitality industry, one of my previous careers, to healthcare.  My dream was to bring chefs, hotel managers, and housekeeping professionals to the hospital.  Of course, this concept was unheard of and rejected for all of the institutional reasons.  It was the same set of criteria that probably dictated that the walls were to be painted white or that awful shade of institutional green.

How did we do it?  We transformed our hospital into the best of a hotel and the best of a spa.  Our philosophy was not just to create something that people would like.  We, in fact, were interested only in creating something that people would absolutely love.

What did that mean?  As a patient, it is typical that you must leave your dignity at the door of the hospital.  You are entering a world that is foreign to most of us.  It is filled with scientists who typically deal in life and death issues.

It would be better if patients very quickly move away from a world of fear and confusion and into a world of love and nurturing because Patient Centered Care represents a demystification of health delivery. It represents an open spirit of communication that allows individuals to make the same types of informed choices that they have been entitled and encouraged to make in every other aspect of their lives.

So, what are the answers?  The answers are all based upon one universal belief, sincerity.  Love can be produced through empowerment, through trust, through humanness, through nurturing; through the very best that mankind has to offer.  The reality of sincerity will cut through every one of the concerns listed above.  We made our change and it was a change forever.