November 6, 2009

Good Evening DaVitans,

It is Friday and I am on the 6 hour plane trip home from Boston.  I will get home about 8:00 pm and look forward to taking Denise out for a wonderful dinner and conversation.

I have some fun news for the Village — many of you know about our Village Health program,  where we serve as the coordinator for all aspects of our patients’ care, meaning the hospitalizations, the surgical procedures, the diabetes, the family issues etc.  This is a special demonstration project we are doing in partnership with CMS, the agency the runs all of the Medicare program.

Well the Harvard Business School considers it to be one of the best examples of where healthcare needs to go.  And they wrote a case about it, and it will be taught for the first time in January, at Harvard, to about 75 MD’s, MBA’s etc.   This is a powerful example of the third ring of our Vision Circle, which declares we want to be “A Role Model for American Healthcare”.  Michael Porter, one of the most famous business professors in the world, and a consultant on healthcare to many national governments in Europe, Asia and Africa, will be the teacher, and has overseen the development of the case.

So CONGRATULATIONS  !!  You are each a part of the story that made this project possible.

Back to the basics of healthy living and exercise.  I got back from my business dinner about 9 pm last night.  I caught up with my assistant in California, tried to provide some Service Excellence by reviewing different reports from other teams, and stopped working at 11.  I read for 45 minutes, which is the way I love to end as many of my days as possible.

Then up at 6:45 for a quick workout.  20 medium minutes on the lifecycle, push-ups and crunches, and a little stretching.  29 minutes.  One diet coke on Thursday, and one today on Friday (so far, but I think I will make it).  Reasonable eating both days, so far.

All the best,

KT