I Fought the Law

I feel quite accomplished today and equally exhausted. I made it through another round of Code Stroke, Physician Recruitment, and Lean Six Sigma in Surgery Throughput meetings (all of which I'm leading, by the way...does that explain my exhaustion? Probably so. I found out yesterday that I'm now responsible for three Six Sigma projects at St. Fozzie's...so I'm teaching the biweekly three-hour classes and serving as a consultant of sorts while also learning all this stuff myself. Makes for an interesting experience). Then I had a physician dinner tonight with the OB/Gyne department, which I actually blew off...even Dorrie has her breaking points and one more late night out would've been the perpetual nail in the coffin.

Tomorrow's an all-day meeting at St. Animals and Friday's an all-day meeting at St. Piggy's. I was supposed to go to SB for a meeting at Muppet Corporate on Thursday, but I bailed becuase I have one last committee at which I must present the stroke order sets. It's another week where I'm rackin' up the mileage on the ol' Toyota. I need a heated massage chair in my car.

I have a song stuck in my head, the one one from the '60's that says, "I fought the law and the law won." Except that I wrote the law. I can't remember if I told you before, so I'll tell you again (teehee). When St. Fozzie's put me in charge of the stroke program's creation in October, I quickly contacted the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to see what the regulatory language was. One of the policy analysts wrote me back and said they hadn't drafted the language yet and did I have anything I'd like to see included?

I dropped what I was doing and scrawled out a list of 40+ facets I would like to see addressed. They were generic, as it was up to Illinois to figure out the specifics. I sent off my list and the policy analyst replied, thanking me for my time and input.

I forgot about that exchange until about one hour after my stroke presentation last Wednesday. My Blackberry buzzed to life and I saw that policy analyst's name pop up in my inbox. I quickly opened the message and found that Illinois did, indeed, draft the language in rough format. The policy analyst requested that I edit the rules and help formalize the regulatory language.

Since I spent all weekend painting, I didn't get to the law-writing until Monday afternoon. And I didn't write as much as I poked holes in their logic, cited inconsistencies, and pointed out areas that needed additional clarification. These people at the IDPH need an introductory course in logic and reasoning!

Now, I know this is a strange fluke, that I'm not truly qualified to be helping write state laws. But since I asked for info and submitted my suggestions in October, I must have stuck in the analysts' minds. Whatever the case, isn't that a cool resume-builder?! How many times do people get to help write laws?