5 things I learned at the 2019 AlaHA Annual Meeting

5 things I learned at the 2019 AlaHA Annual Meeting

  1. That Florida is not always the Sunshine State. It rained almost the entire conference, but that didn’t stop us from learning and laughing with our customers and fellow sponsors.
  2. Even in the midst of difficult times for rural hospitals, there are some things to do to keep from getting burned out. According to J. Bryan Sexton, Ph.D. from Duke University we are hard-wired to remember the negative, but with practice, reflecting on the positive leads to noticing more positive. He equipped us with some “skills, not pills” to begin this practice.  Visit http://bit.ly/2XGoW2jto enroll.  Lots more information and other great tools can be found on the Duke Patient Safety page at https://www.hsq.dukehealth.org/tools/.
  3. I also learned some great brand lessons from a former Disney Institute executive, Jake Poore. You might not think this has relevance for healthcare but it does! Jake has proven this through his work with Dignity Health Medical Foundation.  It’s important to design an authentic, intentional culture.  Although there are many steps in this process, one key point I took away was the Human-Clinical-Human® approach. We sometimes miss the human experience in the clinical interaction.  It has to be a balance of the two.
  4. The rain dance worked and we had a nice break in the weather for the annual oyster roast hosted by Inspirien and Gilpin|Givhan, PCat the Crazy Lobster in Baytowne. It’s always a great time interacting with our customers at this fun event!

  1. Some of Alabama hospital CEOs can sing and dance! Don’t believe me, check out this picture of the Blues Brothers at AlaHA’s closing party.

What a great opportunity for hospital executives across Alabama to come together to learn new things, share experiences and yes, even take a break from the important work they do every day in healthcare!  I consider it a great privilege to work alongside these inspiring leaders choosing to find innovative ideas and solutions to the problems they face in delivering quality care.

Article contributed by Kathy Freyman.