1200 Miles

My blogging may be a bit light this week. I have to basically drive to The Netherlands and back between now and Friday night. I was in Chicago today, will be in Indy tomorrow, back in Chicago Wednesday and Thursday, with my week concluding in Crown Point. I'm not crazy about all these miles, but it's just something I have to do. Just keep driving, just keep driving!

It was a 14 hour day today. It started off with me being stood up for a meeting I scheduled with Dietary. EVOO is letting me learn how to manage departments in Operations. Anyway, the Director of Dietary was at the other St. Fozzie's campus. That sometimes happens when you have two hospital campuses (he had a coupon for a free lunch delivered to me)! So I seized the extra two hours and got some paperwork finished for our legal team. My secretary had sent homemade, cream-cheesy brownies. They weighed in like small bricks, but they were worth the caloric overload. Plus, is there really anything better than homemade pastries with your coffee at 6:30 AM on a Monday morning?

I had a physician recruitment luncheon at one of our neighboring hospitals. We're trying to sway he and his practice over to St. Fozzie's (insert evil laughter here). We also had a recruitment dinner this evening, trying to entice a new gastroenterology grad to join St. Fozzie's. I succumbed to my carnivoristic tendencies and ate a steak. EVOO even gasped at me. The "PC" thing to do is eat fish. I should have really shocked them an ordered a dirty vodka martini.

Then I ran the Stroke Kick-Off meeting this afternoon (the meeting lasted an exhausting 2 hours as we discussed every facet of Stroke designation and any corresponding obstacles that might arise). We're making great progress. In fact, we're making such good progress that the Director of the Cardiovascular Service Line asked me if I would consider leading the Chest Pain accreditation St. Fozzie's will seek in 2010. Then my grant writing consultant emailed me eight new links for potential grant opportunities. The deadlines span from mid-November to early-December. Corporate sent me 7MB worth of changes in benefits that I must submit before Friday.

I have a feeling I'm going to need more coffee…..