He’s sure that his competitors may disapprove of Running a hospital, but won’t say so to his face:
This blog is subject to disdain by my colleagues in some other hospitals. Really. You can see it on their faces when the topic is raised in their presence. They are deeply offended by it and think it unacceptable for the CEO of a Harvard hospital. Of course, they have never said anything to me directly. Then, they would have to admit that they read it.
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{ 4 comments }
I stopped reading his blog when he actually quoted an ER kapo’s email to her underlings, where she was kissing up to the boss in poor Sovietic (and corporate American) style.
I think Mr. Levy has many good intentions, but I think he hurts his institution more than he helps it. He would have saved a lot of headache if he blogged anonymously.
1. I can say for a fact that at least some of his fellow Boston hospital CEOs do feel exactly that way about this blog.
2. Of course his blog is to some degree self-serving, and promotes his own agendas as the CEO–and praises others who promote his agenda. (That’s sort of his job, though, whether he does that in internal emails or a public blog.) But I’d much rather work for someone who is willing to put those agendas out in public than someone who keeps them hidden.
The single most important thing about the blog is that he regularly publishes line infection rates, and I also know for a fact that this is one of the things about his blog that annoys some of his competitors the most.
BIDMC has a lot of difficult “branding” issues to face within the Boston healthcare market. Paul Levy is advancing the BIDMC brand as tech-savvy, progressive, and open to change. That is genuinely the strength of the place compared to its competitors, so the blog reinforces this message.
I disagree strenuously with Levy about some things–like union organizing rules, most importantly–but I think people who say, “well, this is just the boss writing, accompanied by people kissing his butt” are missing the real value of this blog. The boss is always the boss, and there will always be people who want to kiss his butt, but the boss is not always as public about his agenda and points of view, and that can only be a good thing.
He could not publish anonymously and preserve these important things about the blog.
Anonymous posting lets anyone critique anything he wants to say–instead of no longer reading his blog after the ER memo, why not just say, “Hey Paul, why are you publishing butt-kissing memos?” in an anonymous post, if it bothers you so much?
Finally, I like the idea of the CEO blogging because it gives some room for the possibilities of employees blogging too.
Anon 10:30, Thanks.
On union organizing rules, you disagree with me that workers should have the right to vote on whether to have a union certified? Or is it that you disagree with me that unions should not engage in coporate campaigns that denigrate the reputation of the hosital and it volunteer trustees? Those are the two points I have made. Just curious which one you don’t like.
Uh, Paul – can’t speak for anon above, but many don’t like your abuse of unskilled minority workers (patient sitters)who worked for years at over forty hours a week with no benefits, no training, high error rates, patients and workers who suffered harm because of that, and who way over-represented your “diversity in the workplace” – and then awarded their manager with a hospital lifetime achievement award. Some say that’s illegal and unethical. Let’s see you produce the records for this group over the past five years – show how many workers were working for no benefits as casual employees and how much they actually worked. And since you revel in statistics – produce the number of patient incidents and worker injuries from this group for that time period.
Union representation is definitely needed in your very cut-throat competitive hospital. Unfortunately, for all your meetings, the information you get is so filtered and distorted by the patient care senior folks, that you are in the dark. And your managers and directors are too intimidated and threatened to tell you.
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