The Power of "We"

So as we experiment with the idea of how to improve and innovate in healthcare, it seems to us that it all boils down to eliminating silos and regaining our voices as a community. All communities are built on a simple ingredient called relationships and doing good for each other.

We think of the industrial hospital complex, where margins and rules are more important than relationships. Look at how Prince William Hospital, a UVA Health System, and Woodbridge Hospital, a Sentera Health System, have closed the pediatric ward, and emergency room, given the newborns to the neonatologist, and even stopped doing radiology procedures on children. Is that a good relationship with the community or the pediatric community? They will take the mother who is delivering because she drives healthcare consumption in the USA. But they won’t care for her child because it has no margin.

The Pediatric Lounge started as a dare on our ability to take the community back and build relationships. We are regaining the voice of the USA-based community physician. It has grown in less than one year into a global brand with almost 9,000 downloads of the podcast, 5,000 on youtube, and 10,000 views a month on Linkedin. It has become my full-time job.

We now have a CEO for Success Group, a dashboard for financial success, a happy hour for start-ups, and medical students, a list server free of moderation, and this channel which Dr. Biran Birch MD FAAP suggested.

We humbly suggest that every effort we make as a community to work together and not reinvent the wheel will improve the finance and quality of care that children and young adults receive in the USA.

That is why I applaud Dr. Kattina Skinner and Chip’s Hart effort at a Pediatric CEO Intensive that is well-priced and well-led. It seems to be an excellent value for practices in trouble and mature practices looking to transition from working managing partner to CEO - Physician. I wish my good friends the best of luck on this new channel. Nothing is more important for relationships than meeting in person and breaking bread.