Friday October 31st 2014 (yes, Halloween) was my last day at Valley Presbyterian Hospital. I worked there for 3+ years, saw many changes and made some good friends.
I also worked on some very cool projects, often allowing me to work along side top leaders of the hospital. Those were some great experiences and certainly a highlight of my career there.
As to why I was left, let me just say that the healthcare universe is large and unpredictable. It continually swirls and shifts to political, insurance and government forces. Your local community hospital is at ground zero and is often whipsawed by the latest healthcare tide. This fact was eye-opening for me while working at VPH and I realized early on that running a hospital is a very tough business. In fact, I'm not sure it's a business in the traditional sense.
Once I understood this premise, certain things stopped surprising me while keeping up with the latest changes that were being implemented. New systems. Switching vendors. Old leaders leave. Interim leaders take over. New leaders step in. The cycle continues and for the most part the hospital improves along the way.
In that context, there was a moment where I decided that I wanted to start looking elsewhere for a job change. Virginia and I were in agreement so I started looking casually, but kept at it. Months down the line, I was summoned to a meeting where I was given my notice by the current CIO. My last day would be the end of October. I had about 2 and a half weeks to go. Luckily my job search was picking up steam.
On a side note, one of my final projects was considered my biggest success and was featured in the Fall 2014 issue of VPH Nurse magazine:
Above you can see the app I built being used by my co-worker Rudy.
Above, Rudy makes the task of patient rounding look easy. It's not.
Hey, that's me in the green box! Read the entire article here.
So Halloween came (incidentally my least favorite holiday) and I made my rounds to say goodbye to my friends and co-workers. I was out by 2PM, looking forward to my weekly Friday night bike ride up Mt. Verdugo. I blasted up the fire road in record time. In the end, I was glad to be leaving on a high note and thankful for the spoils of good timing.
The next step was all too familiar. Job applications, interviews and yet another run to the cleaners to pick a freshly pressed monkey suite. I was not looking forward to that but if you want to make a change in your life, you have to work for it. You have do what you have to do. I was ready.
To all my friends at VPH, I say "best wishes" to you, good luck and may you receive some good timing of your own. I hope to keep in touch with you!
When was the last time you got a new job? Was it a tough decision or a "no brainer"? I would love to hear about it.