July 24, 2008

Yo DaVitans!

I last left you late in Day 4. I got to the hotel a little after midnight, did some email, read the paper a bit, had a bag of popcorn at 160 calories, and turned the lights off at 1 am. My wake up call was at 7:15, so I could get in a short workout before my 9 am breakfast. I did some lifecycle, my PT, and some stretching.

The breakfast was with the Executive Director of the Kidney Care Partners Coalition, the coalition that we put together to advocate for our patients and you! We celebrated the passage of the Medicare legislation over water, and then began to plan for 2009. I had shredded wheat with a sliced banana, then 2 eggs with ham.

Next I spent 90 minutes interviewing a candidate for one of our VP spots. They had done quite a bit of research into us, and were very positive. That was nice to hear. Then came a lunch meeting where I did an operating review with one of our SVP’s, while having salmon with asparagus, no starch. Then I did a review of Empower, which is doing some promising stuff, and after that off to the Hill I skipped to meet with 4 different staff members and Senator Kent Conrad. Those meetings were all good — I was thanking them for their support. In the car to and from the meetings I met with one of our lobbyists, and we worked on the 2009 plan.

I must admit that on the way to the airport at 3 pm I stopped and picked up a chicken salad. In retrospect, I could have done without it. Oh well.

I landed in Ohio 50 minutes later, and headed straight to an early dinner with a physician group. This dinner also lasted 3 hours; they had many good questions as they compare DaVita to other companies. I had a crab cake appetizer and walleye fish with broccoli for dinner.

By the time I got back to the airport the dessert cravings were building. Lucky I had a diet root beer with me, it is working to distract my sweet tooth. It is now 11 pm, and I should land in the next city in about 30 minutes. Hopefully I will resist the cravings and make this 5 days without a dessert. Once I land it is about a 40 minute car ride to where I am staying. I must admit that tomorrow is not a tough workday – dear friends from Poland are in the US, in New Jersey, and I am visiting them — so I will stop work about 1 pm and take the rest of Friday off, as well as Saturday until I get on the plane home when I will catch up on emails and write some performance reviews.

All four of the senior Congressional staff people I met with today and the Senator and the Executive Director all for them said that the legislation would never have passed if it were not for DaVita’s advocacy. Some of them expressed amazement at your ability to mount wave after wave of thoughtful support. I pledged to them our commitment to always advocate for transparency and accountability, so that taxpayers know when their hard-earned money is being well spent on Medicare. I wish you could have been with me — you would have been so proud to be standing in the United States Capitol, with seasoned veterans talking about how we were instrumental in creating a good law.

One for All & All for One,

KT

(Tis better to light a small candle than curse the darkness. Confucius)