The "other" side of my job...

One of the things that I think is great about the Health Administration program at VCU is that they really try to expose us to the actual medical side of medicine. Too often, health administration programs - and sadly, many hospital administrators - forget that medicine actually happens in hospitals.

A blog post by Dr. Schwab over at Surgeonsblog really moved me the other day. Physicians are given a bad rap with healthcare administrators because they are usually mad at us for not giving them something (which typically would help our patients) or we are mad at them because they won't change to help us. That's really not the M.O. of most physcians, it's just that administrators are exposed to that most often. I'd bet that even those of you not in the healthcare field forget what it takes to be a physician most days. For some really interesting reading, I'd recommend you check out the book Complications. I'm sure you'll be surprised.

But for now, just check out Dr. Schawb's post. The most telling part of the whole thing:

There's something completely wrong about a tiny baby on a big table in a huge OR. I could cover the entire person with my two hands. All the machinery, the tools, the drapes, the surrounding team seem terrifyingly outsized. It's like a joke. We're playing dolls. Except it's real and the stakes are high.

Can you hear me now?

On my drive home from Blacksburg this weekend, I took advantage of the 3+ hours I had in the car to catch up on some phone calls. In fact, I had planned to do this before I even left Richmond - there were about 4 or 5 calls that I wanted to make. What I found was that I was only able to fit in 3 calls because each call lasted a long time. It was actually great though, I enjoyed talking to each of these people as I hadn't talked them in quite some time. I'm not sure why that is. Every time I finally catch up with someone, the last thing we usually say on the phone is something to the effect of "lets talk more frequently." It rarely happens.

I think this is a common occurrence among others. I don't know why many of us go months without talking to some of the people we call our closest friends. I obviously have my own excuses - "I'm so tired when I get home from work" or "I forgot" or "I didn't want to bother them." I'm not sure about all of you, but I really have to make a conscious effort to keep up with my friends. I often put the phone calls on my calendar, just to remind me to do them. I certainly hope that I can do better at keeping in touch over the next few weeks.