December 5, 2009

Yo DaVitans !

It is an AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL DAY IN MARYLAND.   It is Saturday, mid-day.  Huge, light snowflakes are falling, covering the branches of every tree and the ground.  No wind.  It is like being in a Christmas movie!  We are visiting friends who moved here from Poland, something we promised to do this fall.

I last left you Wednesday afternoon in Washington DC.  After I left you the entry,  I met with Senator Conrad from North Dakota (we know him well, he came and spoke at one of our nationwide meetings, and has been to my home for dinner, he is a longtime supporter of the kidney care community) and Senator Lincoln from Arkansas (whom we also know pretty well, who also has been to my house for dinner).  Then we had a dinner with Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick, who also has come to one of our nationwide meetings, and is from Detroit.  You should all feel good that these people care enough about DaVita to visit my home and speak at our meetings — because if it were not for the letters and emails you have sent over the years, if it were not for the campaign contributions you make … they would not care enough to do those things.  And doing those things is essential for them to learn how different we are from most healthcare companies.  And how special our clinical outcomes are.  And what a leading innovator we are.

No brag, just fact !!

I have a good Match the Mayor story for Wednesday.  When I got to the Casa Blanca (DaVita’s office in DC) I wanted a little boost.  So I asked one of the assistants to bring me a diet coke with my lunch.  She said “But what about the Match the Mayor Campaign!”  I told her I needed it.  She brought it in, but by that time her words had strengthened my resolve, and I took a little walk around the office for energy, and told her to take it back!  Thanks Cam !!!!  So zero diet cokes on Wednesday.

The bad news is the dinner was at a Ruth Chris Steakhouse.  I ordered the chicken, but even that was done in  high fat/grease way.  All the appetizers were pre-ordered for our group of 15 people, and they were also all high fat/grease.  This non-healthy dinner also had slow service, and I did not get out of there until 9 pm.  Then I had a 45 minute ride to the airport, followed by over a 2 hour flight to Dallas.  I got into my hotel room about 1 am, synced my email and read myself to sleep.

I got a medium workout in the next morning, Thursday.  22 medium minutes on the bike, 30 push-ups, 5 minutes of stretching, for a total of 27 minutes.  I had a breakfast with a promising executive candidate, then Board Committee meetings on Compliance, Clinical Outcomes, Audit, Compensation and Public Policy.  Then we had a full Board meeting from 5 pm until 6:15, then a mgmt meeting on 2010 Priorities until 7:15, then a long Board dinner followed by conversations with the Board until midnight.   Zero diet cokes on this day too!

Given I did not get to bed until 1 am, I was lazy and did not get up in time to workout on Friday am.  Not only that, I also had 2 diet cokes, as I was starting to drag a bit by this time of the week.  After the Board meeting ended at 1 pm I went and visited the Star Pharmacy, DaVita’s RX largest pharmacy and office — 250 teammates.  It was a GREAT visit, they were very warm and welcoming — we did a tour, a town hall, and a little Village discussion.  A wonderful way to end the week.

Then I caught a plane to DC.  I did email the entire flight, very productive.  Our wonderful friends unfortunately had nothing but high fat appetizers and a high fat dinner.  So this morning’s workout (Saturday) felt really good, 40 solid minutes on the bike, 32 push-ups, 75 crunches, and good stretching for 55 minutes.  We are going to go for a long walk later today.

I hope you are all well, as we go into the home stretch.  The good news is I told you on Tuesday is that as of last Sunday I was at 100% of my exercise goal!  The bad news is by the time I got that news I was already behind again, from being light on Monday and Tuesday.

So I need a rally to hit my minutes goal, and have every intention of doing that.  I think I am on track on diet cokes, and plan on hitting that.  I am in bad shape on the weight goal, so will have to face up to that probable failure and decide what to do.

Thanks for all your support!  It was fun reporting to the Board of Directors your many impressive accomplishments.

Begin With the End in Mind.

KT