Cows and Cholesterol

It's been so busy lately. But you didn't stop by to hear about that craziness.

I had a few cool firsts this week. On Monday, I gave a lecture to the medical students, residents, and fellows about stroke. I got to explain the Illinois law, what St. Fozzie's is doing to meet the law's requirements, and then solicited their advice about ICU Residents' group page coverage. It was a great experience and speaking to a room full of white coats for 45 minutes was oddly easy.
I'm one of those people who's intimidated by very smart people. But talking to a room of doctors was okay because my psyche knew they're still in training. Then on Monday night, I had a physician practice meeting at BeakerGroup and....well...there's nothing too exciting about that one!

Tuesday was mixed. I started out the day by giving the Quality Improvement Committee a stroke update. QI Comm is a big meeting with Elvis, EVOO, and everyone in attendance. I hadn't realized I was a standing item on this agenda. So I was able to make this up on the spot and do pretty well. Then there was a 3.5 hour senior leadership meeting (and it was my turn to take minutes). By the time I got to my webinar at 2pm, I was moving in slow motion, having used up all my energy in the morning. By 6pm, I was moving through molasses in a Chicagoan January while nursing a sore throat. I went straight home and went to bed at 7:52pm.

I think this was the first time I slept 10 hours on a weeknight!

Today was MUCH better. I had a couple short meetings this morning, kicked-off the second process improvement project (this one is fixing Resource Maps in Surgery), and had lunch with Vera, my friend and co-traveler from IHI last December. I finished up a bunch of meeting minutes and agendas (the behind the scenes meeting stuff!) and was packing up for the physician dinner at 94 West. EVOO called me into his office and asked if I would assume interim management responsibilities for BioMed. This is a huge honor, but it's because Bob the Builder is out on leave for a while. But it's not going to be easy; it was one of the departments Bob was refocusing. So I'm inheriting a department with EVOO's explicit direction to restructure the department. My first real hospital management experience will be in fixing a broken department in an area in which I've had no experience. I had to ask what Biomed even does.

Nonetheless, it's exciting. I was still on that high as I drove to the restaurant with my sunroof open, lavishly enjoying the 64 degree sunny weather. 94 West's filet mignon is half a cow and for some reason, I ordered this banana-rum-coconut encrusted seabass that burned my entire tongue when I took a bite. I didn't realize it was lava-encrusted seabass. What was I supposed to do, spit it out when I was in the middle of a conversation with a doc? Dinner ended with a presentation on a new cholesterol drug (while they served cheesecake as a chaser to massive half-cow steaks).

Ironic? Pass the au jus!