Leading change within the college

Over the last couple months on this page, I have revisited each of the department’s overarching missions and provided examples from among the countless ways in which we are meeting them every day. The exercise should help us know that we are all working in concert and remind us that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. We are not just spinning our wheels; we are building and improving, leaving things better than when we found them. Not only are the members of our nine divisions rowing in the same direction as one department, but our department is also working to align with other departments to meet the larger strategic goals of the Carver College of Medicine. Although Internal Medicine is the largest department in the university, we do not have a monopoly on creativity or good ideas, and certainly not in dedication or effort. So I think it is important for us to remember how deeply interconnected our department is with others within the college and how much our goals align even with other colleges at Iowa. Whether you attend Dean Denise Jamieson’s monthly town halls in person or you watch them online in real time or later, I believe she does an excellent job at communicating those larger goals by highlighting specifics, much as I try to do to in this space.

One of those goals is to increase the engagement of our workforce. What does that mean, to be engaged? To me, that means you have a stake in the outcomes of your effort, an investment beyond your contribution. Most of us can probably remember a job, maybe in high school or college, where we felt interchangeable with anyone else, where anyone else could do our work. Our unique talents and ideas went untapped and unsolicited. Because University of Iowa Health Care is a large system, the concern is that people might feel like their efforts here go unrecognized and unappreciated. I am pleased with the solutions produced by the committees our department empaneled over the last couple years. We set up a recurring forum for staff and faculty to “Chat with the Chair” and over multiple hour-long lunches I have met and heard from dozens of members and what their concerns were. I learned a lot, but attendees also heard from each other and saw how their work fit into a larger context.

The committee also established the Internal Medicine Honor Roll, a monthly space for praising the big and small things you all do for each other. You can always nominate someone right here. Sometimes shout-outs come through different avenues but they are always welcome. Just earlier this week a former nurse at UI Health Care emailed our CEO Brad Haws to say that in their “25 years of being an RN, I have never had a more competent, capable, caring caregiver” than Susan Kaliszewski, one of our clinicians at Iowa River Landing. “Many of her patients agree with me,” this correspondent said. These small gestures add up and remind us that what we do resonates well beyond our brief moments with patients and with each other. I would be willing to bet that hundreds of similar sentiments are thought each day about all of us. I hope we can all recognize those moments when they happen and then take a few moments to share them.

Individual successes are worth mentioning, but so are the results of team efforts. Later today, members of the adult hospitalist program will be recognized by institutional leadership for a remarkable reduction in length of stay over the last couple years. Through a combination of efficiencies in rounding, greater team communication, and better monitoring—among many tactics—this group has produced a savings of nearly 1,400 “excess days” just by helping inpatients leave when they are ready. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this achievement, from residents and faculty, social workers, pharmacists, and nurses to the administrative team including Interim Division Director Dr. Kevin Glenn, who has long made this metric a target to shift, and Dr. Brad Manning, the Adult Hospitalist Program Director, who is a strong advocate for what makes sense, not just what has always been done.

If I had unlimited time and space, I would love to walk through all of our strategic goals and to show how each of you are helping to meet them. I hear stories like these examples all the time and I am always impressed by the talent and professionalism that fills these halls. I am honored to have been able to share here just a fraction of that work. I will have more to say about that in my next post, my last post.