I Am Not an Octopus

On Saturday, I was invited to my friend Eileen’s house for dinner. Since my husband would be out for a friend's bachelor party, and Eileen’s children similar ages to my own (1 and 3), I decided to venture out for the evening.

It was organized to be a small get together among friends; just one more couple was to join us. Upon my arrival, the house was quiet, the food was being prepared and the children playing nicely in the toy room. Ahh…what a nice Saturday evening it was turning out to be.

Just as I began to relax, the doorbell rang and like a tsunami, neighbors, family and more friends flooded into the house.

“What is going on?” I asked Eileen. “Where are all these people coming from?”

Eileen told me how a few small phone calls turned the evening into a full-blown house party and not to worry, she was used to this, everything will be fine.

I thought to myself, “I am not prepared for this.”

To my shock, Eileen began pulling extra food from the freezer, wine glasses from the shelves, and juice cups for the six more children that now played in the toy room. She and her husband communicated like a well oiled machine, preparing the food and actually being able to talk to their guests while keeping an eye on their children.

I, on the other hand, was a complete mess; chasing my 15-month-old around the house, petrified that she would knock someone’s wine over or escape out of the house as people meandered in and out.

At one point my 3 year old was begging me to push her on the swings while my 15-month-old was wiggling out of my grip as I tried to change her diaper.

Sweating and completely exhausted, I looked at my children and said, “I AM NOT AN OCTOPUS!”

Like any sane mother would, I packed up and left the party. I was simply unprepared for the evening and called it a night.

After I put the girls to bed, I sat with my coffee on the couch and thought about how smooth a transition it was for Eileen to go from a house of 4 people to a house filled with 20. I was flabbergasted at her ability to transition, her ability to pull from the cabinets what she needed, how she communicated with her husband, all while keeping her children safe and happy. What did she have, that I didn’t have?

My conclusion? Eight Arms...

Is this what its like for clinicians in emergency rooms, and hospital units when they get an unexpected increase in patients? What must occur for hospitals to be prepared and what are the criteria for success? What supplies? What are their means of communication? What is the process? Where, on earth, do you start?

Most would say, “start with the patient”. Anchor everything you do with the patient, and be prepared. Grow your arms: set up your supplies efficiently, automate when you can. It’s the system that supports the outcome.

Hospitals are clearly more complex than a home, but both function for the same purposes; a place to keep us safe, to foster health, and to support the varied challenges of the day. It’s the people that make a place a home. It’s the patients that make a hospital a hospital.

Patient centered care is a powerful model - a model that the industry is pushing for especially in this time of healthcare reform.

The patients, the clinicians, the automation, can not be successful if they function in silos. They all must be connected to something…an anchor…like an octopus. Shouldn’t that anchor be a patient?

I believe in my work.

Claire