Oh, the irony of what you can find in our institutions of healing.
Working nearly two decades supporting the fascinating and fractured sector that is healthcare, you see and learn a lot from the inside. The inefficiencies of operations and finance, and even clinical risks. You learn about the dangers of “Hospital-Aquired Conditions” (AKA HACs), which are very real. These are new illnesses, injuries, or conditions that develop as a result of being in the hospital (through bad luck, accident, or incidental contact with someone or something) when one is in the hospital for a different reason. And when you see friends, family, loved ones, or associates encounter these dangers — it hits home.
One of the first concerns I have, when I hear of an elderly person going into the hospital, is pneumonia, as it is an all too common hospital-acquired illness. I’ve personally witnessed multiple people fall victim to this hazard.
The longer you live, the more you appreciate the importance of staying out of the healthcare system.
And don’t get me started on the food.
The GIGO acronym and adage, “Garbage in, Garbage Out,” certainly applies to our bodies which require good, clean fuel for performance.
We further hold as a tenet that when you are under stress, whether physical, psychological or emotional, this is precisely when you need healthy ‘the most’ in the form of nutrition and other wellness practices.
How even more important, then, is it for patients to have access to healing nutrition when they are recovering from serious ailments or surgery? And what about the physicians, nurses, and other professionals that attend to these patients?
A recent trip to retrieve someone from the E.R. found me poking around to examine the food options. I witnessed nurses eating out of vending machines, and they encouraged patients to do the same. The least-offensive option seemed to be refined white-bread sandwiches that were highly processed and contained preservatives and food additives, and sweetened fruit-juice beverages and snacks containing high-fructose corn syrup. (My typical line of questioning – is it local? organic? – was out the door.) Talk about being at the whim of whatever is in front of you. This unfortunate reality is what many confront day-in and day-out.
Years ago, my maternal grandmother was in a rehabilitation facility following a massive stroke, and she proudly presented to me her “vitamins” that she dutifully drank each morning and night. My heart sank, as these ‘vitamins’ were nothing more than fortified processed milk with high-fructose corn syrup, emulsifiers and other chemical additives that I could not pronounce. And then anger quickly arose. How dare they give this to her?! I quickly set to work with the staff, and we implemented a number of changes which I will detail in a future post. Fortunately, I caught this; but it is disturbing to think of how many unaware patients may consume unhealthy inflammatory beverages and foods, believing that they ‘must’ do so, since it is from the hospital and must be healthy?
And with sleep being a cornerstone of good health, I’ve never understood the unhealthy requirement for medical professionals to work long shifts, such as 24, 36 hours or even more. Would you prefer a bleary-eyed professional who hasn’t breathed fresh air or seen the sun attending to your medical needs? Seems our healers are challenged to connect with health themselves, and it this is baked into the profession’s DNA, starting in the medical and nursing schools. But are such heroics healthy? With such an inauspicious start health-wise it is no wonder obesity is a common problem amongst healthcare professionals, especially nurses.
Our healers and institutions too often seem to have strayed from their Hippocratic origins and shifted into a game of symptoms management, misaligned incentives, and chasing dollars while driving down costs. Yet the U.S. consistently ranks amongst the highest in terms of costs and spending on healthcare and also consistently ranks amongst the lowest in terms of quality outcomes and overall health of industrialized nations.
Of course, there are programs at play to reduce the aforementioned HACs and improve patient safety, and these efforts are helpful. But what of making healthcare healthier – starting with the professionals that are the foundation?
Recently on a flight from the East Coast returning to California, I had the privilege and good fortune of sharing the exit row with a woman who has been working to change all of this, starting with recruiting and enhancing the roles of nurses, at both local and national levels.
Working tirelessly with UCSF, the Robert Woods Foundation, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and more, Mary Dickow has a vision for shaping healthcare by building more engaged, healthy, and robust healthcare leaders dedicated to the whole health of communities. She has worked for decades to advocate and implement innovative nursing and healthcare leadership programs, and she is now working to reevaluate nursing curriculum at the national level. She told me of the many hopeful things she has seen in recent years – especially regarding the next generation of healthcare leaders. She has respect and high expectations for the mission-driven millennial healthcare workforce. And there are more leaders like her, working to design and build healthier spaces and teams.
While I may bemoan the ‘unhealthy’ state of healthcare, I am encouraged through the work of dedicated professionals like Mary who are working diligently to be the change and to make the change.
At Healthy Anywhere, we proactively work to keep individuals out of the system. But we know that if and when we find ourselves on the inside, it is important to have a plan and an advocate to help get the best treatment and holistic support, including proper nutrition. Stay tuned for more information and action plans to help support a stay on the inside.
Healthy Anywhere helps executive travelers enjoy delicious, organic foods, and stay healthy, anywhere in the U.S. Our healthy concierge services include: travel nutrition and meal planning, food delivery, fitness support, and accountability. If you or someone you know would appreciate this level of support, get in touch to work with us.
Eat Clean + Breathe Deep + Move Often = Never Settle™
